“The climate crisis is about people and is about the most vulnerable people. I don’t think people in leadership care.”
Eduarda Zoghbi is a stellar force in the youth climate movement. A political scientist, Zoghbi has aspirations to serve as Brazil’s Minister of Energy. She already consults with the Brazilian Senate, advising on their energy transition roadmap. A regular contributor to COP events, she was invited to COP26 by Columbia University to join their delegation. An opportunity quickly came during the summit when she was invited by the Obama Foundation to join a roundtable chaired by Barack Obama to share views on climate change alongside a cohort of 14 young leaders. Towards the end of Climate Week NYC, she sat down (virtually) with Mission to discuss the need for youth involvement when coming up with climate solutions.
With poise, Zoghbi advocates for youth education across a range of issues. The energy sources feeding the climate crisis are seldom taught about. Utilizing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, she carries the universally accepted requirements for developmental action within global societies. For Zoghbi, climate, energy, and education should go hand in hand. She believes this is critical for halting global warming, “the energy sector is responsible for two-thirds of global CO2 emissions, and also a lot of the methane emissions that we finally started talking about. I think it’s important that young people study, have access to resources, and receive a proper education. One thing that I feel is that young people are always very underrepresented and underestimated,” she argues.
Zoghbi’s work sits at the intersection of industrial engagement and advocacy. A naive mind may consider this counterproductive, almost working with the impetus of Climate Change. It is, however, critical to work across sectors to enact meaningful change. Zoghbi notes the age disparity in both government and the energy industry: “The big challenge is trying to penetrate these groups. These people are very senior, very rich. They are mostly white males from either North America or Europe. The way I approach these people is never in a very combative way of questioning. I ask, ‘Why isn’t there more diversity here?’ You know, it’s so simple….”
On the 13th of September 2022, Eduarda Zoghbi gave a speech to the United Nations General Assembly, pleading for greater levels of empathy with the younger generation, who holds the capacity to enact change. The event aimed to involve more young people in the climate movement during NYC Climate Week. In the address, Zoghbi argued that for meaningful change to occur, cooperation must happen at the most fundamental levels, with bridges needed to include youth or minority demographics. Her message was simple, “to listen, care, and act.”
For Zoghbi, more empathy is needed at a leadership level and across society. “When I say empathy, it is just a matter of caring for people,” she remarks. “The climate crisis is about people and is about the most vulnerable people. I don’t think people in leadership care. Living in the U.S., especially in New York, it scares me that the U.S. has the largest GDP in the world. And there’s still so much poverty, the number of homeless people here, the number of veterans that went to war and are just abandoned by the government. I see a homeless person, and people don’t even look. Humanity has lost its ability to feel something for the other—which is empathy. If we’re thinking about climate solutions, education solutions, and policies that have a gender lens, we have to think of vulnerable people”.
During New York Climate Week, Zoghbi was able to put a question to climate legend Al Gore during a Q&A hosted by The New York Times. Gore’s documentary, ‘An Inconvenient Truth,’ resonated with Zoghbi when she was 12-years-old 12 and galvanized her to action. Sounding surprised by his overarching message, she tells me, “He is actually very hopeful. I wanted to see his perspective today. His response was very inspiring in that the older generation has a lot of hope for my generation. The way that we’re dealing with these issues, the way that we’re acting, and trying to mobilize everyone in our countries, I think that we were all very much prompted by Al Gore.”
After a hectic schedule during New York Climate Week, Zoghbi continues her important work with the Canadian-based organization Student Energy, which offers young people the education needed to engage with energy companies meaningfully. She is currently leading the expansion of the Centre of Global Energy Policy’s “Women in Energy Brazil” Program from Columbia University, which promotes gender equality in the sector.
Her advice for young people? “If you’re young and want to dedicate yourself to these issues, if it’s oceans, biodiversity, or energy, you have to do your work, to study to gain credibility because otherwise, we’re already underestimated.”
Images courtesy of Eduarda Zoghbi
