Two weeks ago, I had the honour and privilege of being invited to participate in Africa’s first-ever Regional Climate Change Conference of Youth (RCOY) which took place at Gauteng’s Innovation Hub in Lynnwood, Pretoria.
The conference is hosted by Indalo Inclusive South Africa, a Pretoria-based non-profit organisation working to support and promote social, green, inclusive, and responsible entrepreneurship in South Africa.
After a rousing speech, I had the pleasure of sitting down with the speaker, Mr Rest Kanju, the director and head of operations at Indalo Inclusive South Africa, which has implemented a variety of social and environmental projects for South African and international donors.
Mr Kanju, speaking to me over a steaming mug of black tea, said that “As young people, you get told by older people the notion that we are the leaders of the future waiting for a chance to lead but we are not leaders yet.
“Waiting for the time when we are supposed to lead but by then we are in a midlife crisis and by that time it might be too late. ”
I laughed at that because it is true. Our geriatric leadership hobbles toward podium after podium imploring youth to take the lead yet they allow us few opportunities to do so. “You need to be an experienced leader,” they say. Well then, allow us the experience, allow us the opportunity to make mistakes, to learn and grow.
Speaking on the upcoming COP27 negotiations Kanju said that “at the end of the day, if we do not wake up and realise that these issues that we are made to keep talking about, that there are people suffering and dying daily, these are the base of the pyramid, living in abject poverty, they are here, on our doorstep”
Why are we flying across the world to talk about our issues? Why can’t we use all the money and energy we put into talking and negotiating to slowly fix our own problems?
“As Africans, we need to do these things ourselves, we have the resources, we have the skills, we just need to empower ourselves to use these things, to come up with solutions, we need to speak up and say ‘this is what I have done and this is what I propose,’” Kanju said.
Being in the development space for over two decades, Kanju was a treasure trove of advice for future leaders and I was out looking for a few galleons to take back home. My next question was regarding how best to approach the topic of climate change with people, specifically youth, who have more pressing issues to worry about such as unemployment, food insecurity, safety etc.
Kanju said that “for me, the simplest way to understand this is to look at livelihoods. We need the planet more than the planet needs us, the reality is if things get worse, people will die.
We've already seen this with the April floods in KZN and the floods, droughts and tropical storms happening all over the world,” said Kanju.
Kanju admitted that wanting to slow, halt and ultimately reverse climate change and the impacts which accompany it is not just about going green and saving our wild spaces, it is for our own survival.
Okay, maybe we’re going about this wrong in terms of climate messaging. From personal experience and discussions, most people I’ve met who are climate sceptics or downright non-believers think that the whole climate change issue boils down to humans versus nature. Of course, it's not, we are part of nature, but this is what they and millions of others believe. So how do we turn this discourse into something everyone can relate to and want to be involved in?
“The transition into a green economy is going to happen whether everyone is on board or not, we are forced to transition, we simply do not have a choice. This is why we need to ask ourselves how we innovate and come up with solutions and inventions which are going to help us survive and live a bit longer,” said Kanju.
For example, when coronavirus engulfed our world, the entirety of the human race woke up and realised, in an extremely short space of time, that we have no choice but to adapt, it was quite literally, a do-or-die situation.
We knew, well most of us knew, that if we weren’t using a mask, sanitising, maintaining social distance and vaccinating, we were putting ourselves and our loved ones at risk. Why are we not using the same logic when it comes to climate change?
Kanju says that the issue society faces currently is about time and urgency. We need to foster sustainable innovation which will enable us to use technology to fight climate change. What can we do right now as a society to bring about these opportunities?
It may sound harsh but, we must see the issue of climate change as an opportunity to make money. In order to make money, we must be able to provide sustainable solutions efficiently and effectively. This is where organisations like Indalo Inclusive come in, to help foster these ideas into tangible, workable solutions.
Africa has immense potential to combat climate change using innovation and new technologies.
We just need to get off the negativity train and start doing things for ourselves because nobody is coming to help us.
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