India climate solutions road tour, on the road to 350

Not so long ago, the Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN) was formed to give a voice to the next generation of India in the climate dialogue. The Network called for youth to come together in order to ensure a clean, bright future. Several city summits amidst a National Youth Summit on Climate Change, and the first ever Indian youth delegation sent to the COP at Poznan ensured that the Indian youth got its voice heard both nationally and during the international climate negotiations.

Now, members of the Indian Youth Climate Network along with a solar powered band are traveling a distance of more than 3500 kilometers in the country in solar plug-in electric cars and alternative-fueled buses. The focus of this journey is to both raise awareness and convert awareness into tangible actions. Climate solutions would be documented all through the journey and the underlying objective is to communicate the message of working to bring down the Carbon concentration to well below 350 ppm.

Despite realizing the gravity of the situation, the world has not yet mobilized into massive action against climate change. This, even when climate solutions exist and are in practice. One of the major barriers for this is that many people are not aware of what is already happening and need to be mobilized. For example, inspirational climate solutions have already been put into action in pockets across India, with enormous co-benefits. However, these are neither documented, nor have the policy makers shown any interest in replicating these successful models.

Thus, the India Climate Solutions Road Trip not just aims to raise awareness among people, it is also making efforts to document all such solutions, engineered models, community actions as a capacity building measure. The month long trip will visit more than 15 cities and several towns and villages sharing solutions in clean tech showcases, empowering youth in leadership training programs, and using art, dance and music by Solar Punch and other local musicians and artists to communicate the message in as many ways as possible.

The IYCN maintains that it is the present generation’s choice to take action and to create the future we all wish to see. And since that is the case, the greatest climate solution is our human capacity to take action.

India Climate Solutions Project: http://indiaclimatesolutions.com/

(via Ecoworldly)