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Young people from all over the world on the premises of the UN to take the fight on the climate. Stephanie Keith / Getty

In New York, this Saturday, more than 500 young people from 140 countries took possession of the UN, instead of the usual diplomats: they gathered for the Climate Youth Summit. After walking the streets of Manhattan alongside 300,000 people on Friday, and shown to be important, these young people from around the world are coming up with solutions, and demanding action from leaders to significantly curb change. climate.

With our correspondent in New York , Carrie Nooten

Two different generations kicked off the Youth Summit on Climate, represented by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Swedish activist Greta Thunberg . Finally, no symbolic handshake between them, here we stand out gestures and habitual logorrhea of ​​politicians.

Greta Thunberg humbly wiped herself off to let three representatives from other continents speak. The Secretary-General warned him that he was more for listening than speaking. He thanked Greta, and the youth in general, for bringing about change in the weather around the climate for two years. " This change in momentum is largely due to your initiative, and the courage that has allowed you to initiate this movement, and to make it grow, from you alone in your Parliament to millions of people on the streets of the world. Claiming clearly that decision makers are changing, but in addition, that they are responsible. "

Radical exchanges

The amphitheater is packed, many young people could not enter: we have rarely seen in the corridors of the UN so much energy as well as concrete solutions.

Five young entrepreneurs explained their projects on the "start-up pitch" mode to representatives of Tech companies, such as Poland's Monika Seyfried of " Grow your own Cloud ". She wants to transform the storage of digital data. " We imagine converting what you have in your phones, photos, videos, into the nucleic bases that make up DNA. And this can be synthesized in the liquid form of DNA, and even more incredible can be inserted into a plant for storage, "says Monika Seyfried.

Then the young people could say in less than a minute, like a tweet, what they had set up in their countries. There have been very radical exchanges, like that of this young woman questioning the representative of Microsoft on its partnerships with companies greedy fossil fuels ... Or the other who warned heads of state: young people are more and more Many will not want to have children until the laws to fight climate change are no longer effective.

Touched by the powerful opening of the @UN Youth #ClimateAction Summit - I'm humbled by all the actions and voices of young people here at the UN today, and around the world to support #ClimateAction pic.twitter.com/BIVeEnEheV

Luis Alfonso from Alba (@ladealba) September 21, 2019