YOUTHS for Climate Justice movement manager Sitwala Lipalile states that young people need to take a front role in combating climate change, as they constitute the larger part of the population.

Data from the Zambia Statistics Agency (ZamStats) indicates that over half of the country’s population are youths.

“Given the drought that we just had in the 2023/2024 rainy season, we saw that over nine million people were affected by drought. This should cause us youths to think about how we can be innovative and deal with this challenge,” he said.

The Ministry of Agriculture indicates that the drought which affected various parts of the country left 9.8 million people in need of food aid, affecting 84 out of the 116 districts.

Mr Lipalile said one way of engaging youths is by incorporating climate issues in the school curriculum from primary to tertiary education.

“Innovation and research should be driven in the education curriculum. There was a youth who was making fuel out of tyres. Such innovations must be supported through research,” he said.

He added that Zambia also needs a strong legal framework, including revising the national climate change policy and enacting a Climate Change Bill.

“Firstly, our national policy on climate change needs to be revised to meet emerging challenges. We also need a Climate Change Bill to highlight measures of combating climate change, and ensuring stakeholder collaboration,” said Mr Lipalile.

BY MWAKA LENGALENGA