Inspirational Chinese Young Climate Leaders
At COP29, the United Nations Climate Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, young climate leaders took center stage, proving that age is no barrier to environmental advocacy. Among them were three remarkable Chinese students, passionate about tackling climate challenges and envisioning a cleaner, greener future. These whizz-kids, representing the next generation of problem solvers, highlighted the critical role youth play in shaping global climate solutions.
Emerald Hill Design Education Institute
Established in 2018 in the city of Hangzhou, some 100 miles (174 km) distance from the city of Shanghai, China, by Dr. Fang Lei Liang, a Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) alumnus.
Emerald Hill Design Education Institute, supported by the Alibaba Group Holding Limited, focuses on Project Based Learning (PBL), a teaching method in which students learn by actively engaging in real-world and personally meaningful projects.
The Mission
The Institute’s mission is to develop future leaders who can innovate, create and inspire others. The Emerald Hill approach to design thinking is a meaningful method to unleash creativity in children, using design thinking principles offered by the institute.
How This Type of Education Is Applied
At Emerald Hill Design Education Institute they believe that education is not just filling a vessel, rather it is about igniting a torch. At the institute they cater to children aged 3.5- to 12-years-old, believing that in the age of AI, kids should learn not outdated facts, but the ability to make connections and solve complex challenges.
The institute’s educational approach has solidified over 1000 projects across seven workshops, including fashion design, photography, pottery, architecture, experimental drama, and animation. Through hands-on engagement, children develop skills in information gathering, knowledge application, and complex problem-solving.
The institute has established five campuses in Hangzhou with a team of over 30 full-time and part-time teachers. The educators are academic achievers, education specialists, or industry experts, unified by their dissatisfaction with post-industrial revolution educational models and their passion for new era educational methods.
At the institute they are all and together committed to making a real change. For the past seven uninterrupted years, the staff has been following their mission and are steadfastly moving forward.
What is COP29
The United Nations (UN) 2024 Conference of the Parties (COP), or Climate Change Conference, or the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), more commonly known as COP29, is the 29th United Nations Climate Change conference that was held in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 11 to 22 November 2024.
Mukhtar Babayev, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan presided over COP29; Samir Nuriyev the head of the presidential administration headed the Organizing Committee.
Being a major oil and gas producer, the choice of Azerbaijan as the COP29 location and the host of the conference raised some eyebrows.
As the president of US-AZ Cultural Foundation (USAZCF) that promotes Azerbaijan in the United States through culture and humanitarian subjects, I saw it was important to travel to Azerbaijan to attend this conference.
Among the speeches and the seminars, I found it most interesting to speak to the few kids whom I met on the floor.
The three whizz-kids
I bumped into these three Chinese kids at the COP29 and they triggered my curiosity.
Leonardo (Naduo Lai), 11-years-old, Iris (Ziqi Wu), 10-years-old, and Nuo (Nuo Lai), 9-years-old, are whiz kids, pupils at an international school of learning; their heart is in preserving the world, sub-subject is climate challenges which they claim the world is facing.
The three are well versed in the English language due to learning the language four days a week two hours each day.
Based on the climate topic, in their pursuit of witnessing climate changes, the Lai brothers already visited the United States, Kenya, Antarctica and plan to travel to other destinations on their school vacation time.
Outspoken and opinionated in the future, these kids see themselves among the leaders of the world.
I asked them what if one of you is the president of China, what will you do for the the climate. All three said they will work to clean the air and pollution.
Though they appear to be shy, when the conversation is about climate challenges and the climate changes claims take place, their opinions are well expressed.
It was difficult for me to determine whether these three youngsters are being influenced by the opinions of the grownups around them or they really delved into the subject head-on and on their own. However, knowing that humanity has young minds who are developing ideals to make the world a better place is encouraging.
In Saudi Arabia
A day later I bumped into Farid, a nine-year-old whizz-kid from Saudi Arabia who also attends an international school and has a perfect command of the English language.
Just like his Chinese counterparts, Farid knows well the reason his father brought him to partake in the COP29.
When I asked Farid what is the reason he is at COP29, he immediately opened up, passionately and in a well formatted speech, the climate challenges which Saudi Arabia is facing and the measures the country is taking to help remedy the situation.
Whether it is China or Saudi Arabia, whether it is the whizz-kids or adults who participated in the COP29 conference, there is one common subject and goal they all have, which is climate. Some see the subject attached to an immediate disaster, some mitigate it.
No matter what, one day the world will run out of the fuel that currently underpins our civilization. It is time to start, innovatively, gradually and smartly inventing the alternatives.
The voices of young climate leaders, from China to Saudi Arabia, resonated powerfully at COP29. Their commitment to addressing environmental challenges and their innovative approaches to solutions reflect a bright future for global collaboration. As these budding leaders continue to grow, their passion and ideas will undoubtedly shape the world’s response to climate change, inspiring others to follow in their footsteps.
