Sixteen-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg took the internet and the world by storm when she launched a scathing attack on the world leaders for doing little to tackle greenhouse gas emissions, at the United Nations General Assembly at the Climate Action Summit in New York City on Monday.
Thunberg and 15 other young activists had also filed a complaint at the UN against five countries for not doing enough to ward off global warming. In their complaint, the young activists accused the countries—Germany, France, Turkey, Brazil, and Argentina—over their failure to uphold their their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, signed 30 years ago. The petitioners from 12 countries, aged between eight and 17, accused these five countries of violating children's rights by failing to take adequate and timely action against climate change.
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Among the 16 young green activists is Ridhima Pandey, an Indian girl hailing from Uttarakhand. “I want a better future. I want to save my future. I want to save our future. I want to save the future of all the children and all people of future generations," reads her bio on the on the Children vs Climate Crisis website.
This isn't the first time the youngster voiced her concerns over climate change. Moved by the Uttarakhand floods of 2013, the young girl filed a petition against the Indian government in 2017. Noting that India is among the most vulnerable countries to be affected by climate change, she requested the Centre to come up with "carbon budget" to ensure that the emission of carbon dioxide is limited. She had also sought setting up of a national climate recovery plan, say media reports.
According to Rahul Chowdhary, the lawyer who represented her, Ridhima is a very aware of the issue of climate change and how it will impact her in the future. "She wanted to do something that can have a meaningful effect, and we suggested she could file a petition against the government," Reuters quoted him as saying.
However, her plea was rejected by the National Green Tribunal which pointed out that the issue was already covered under environmental impact assessment.
