Youth delegates pose for a photo at the China Pavilion during a side event of the 25th UN Climate Change Conference, or COP25, in 2019. CHINA DAILY

New generation rises to the challenge as it seeks to combat global warming, Yang Feiyue reports.

Young people are taking the lead in addressing environmental and biodiversity challenges. Twenty-year-old Cheng Haosheng from Macao－currently studying at Tsinghua University's School of Environment in Beijing－is one of them. He easily recalls his experience late last year at the Global Youth Summit on Net-Zero Future held by the Global Alliance of Universities on Climate.

The alliance was initiated by Tsinghua University and is now composed of 15 universities worldwide, including Oxford in the United Kingdom, Yale in the United States and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

The summit featured more than 30 student-led events, such as a climate-research competition, a Voice Track where students delivered their multimedia messages about climate change and a hackathon to energize youngsters to come up with innovative solutions. It is aimed at being a springboard for the world's youth to take a more active role in mobilizing leadership and demonstrating the collective strengths of higher education institutions in facing pressing environmental issues, according to the alliance.

"I recorded a video for the Voice Track, sharing what I witnessed during Typhoon Hato, my thoughts on climate change and the awareness campaigns and community work I have done in Macao," Cheng says.

Cheng helped draft a youth declaration with students from around the globe during the summit. The declaration calls upon governments to take notice of the effects of the climate crisis.

Cheng also played a positive role in writing media releases about each event during the summit and publishing them online.

"I realized once again the importance of regional and global cooperation for combating climate change. Many scholars, students, young people and citizens from around the globe are already working on the issue," Cheng says.

In November, the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (also known as COP26) displayed his video to its audience of global climate leaders.

Cheng developed a sense of crisis when he was a teenager.

"I learned we have been burning a lot of fossil fuels that could not be regenerated, and that if we do not start implementing energy reform, we will face a resource-scarcity crisis," he says.

"No power and no light, and that was beyond comprehension for me, since I relied on electricity and electronic devices every day."

He has since taken the lead in hosting various environmental protection activities throughout middle school.

He shot a film publicizing the benefits of not using disposable water bottles and negotiated with grocery stores about encouraging students to prepare their own utensils with credit points.

Zhang Jiaxuan (first from right) joins a panel discussion at a side event at COP25. CHINA DAILY

"My schoolmates labeled me as an environmental protection ambassador and I was really enjoying it," he says.

He was impelled to pursue an environmental protection career when Typhoon Hato hit Macao in 2017.

"I could still remember the streets littered with fallen trees and the cracked windows on the verge of breaking into pieces," Cheng says, adding that it was normal for Macao in the subtropical zone to suffer five to six typhoons a year, but the damage imposed by Typhoon Hato was catastrophic.

"It was the first time that I was aware of the impact of global climate change on our lives," he says.

In 2018, Cheng learned about the Global Environment Program offered by Tsinghua University during a summer camp. The program teaches technical skills in science and engineering, as well as environment-related subjects such as diplomacy, management, economics and law.

It came to his knowledge that environmental protection is closely connected to society and the economy.

"Dealing with global environmental issues asks for technical skills, management and diplomatic law. I believed this program could offer me the necessary skills to contribute to environmental protection, so I enrolled," he says.

In addition to academic studies, Cheng has actively engaged in related events outside the classroom.

He has been involved in community projects to spread awareness and knowledge about low-carbon and eco-friendly lifestyles.

For instance, he is a core member of Genervision House, a Macao-based platform for knowledge sharing and advocacy that promotes the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

At the same time, he works with other students to organize environmental campaigns, such as recycling events and cleanup drives at Tsinghua University.

"Through these activities, we hope to inspire action and behavioral changes," he says.

He helped prepare two sessions of Model Climate Change Conference of Parties held by Tsinghua and two sessions of the SDG Hackathon, where he learned from experts in the field and got to know how global cooperation and innovation contribute to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

"I realize that environmental problems are not isolated, but are often closely related to economic development and social equity," he says.

"When considering domestic green and low-carbon transformation, it is often necessary to consider the impact on industrial structure and social areas, like employment; when conducting international climate negotiations, we often need to consider different responsibilities among countries and international development."

As Cheng's knowledge grows, he has begun to see the issue from different perspectives.

"I used to feel confused and frustrated about excessive use of disposable plastic bags, but now I would explore how they affect the environmental system, their ecological footprints, possible alternative materials with lower costs and related law enforcement," he says.

In 2020, Cheng visited South Africa, where he looked into the impact of climate change on the poor.

"People living in the downtown areas of the cities were less affected than those in the slums, where malaria and influenza are more likely to prevail," he says. "Therefore, more help should be given to those at a disadvantage, while protecting the environment."

Like Cheng, Zhang Jiaxuan from Shandong province has also been committed to tackling climate change and studying sustainable development.

The 24-year-old took the national college entrance examination, or gaokao, in 2016 when the Paris Agreement was signed.

Cheng Haosheng (left) at a postgraduate forum held by the Global Alliance of Universities on Climate at Tsinghua University in 2020. CHINA DAILY

"Climate change was gaining lots of attention in the country and a great number of related media reports piqued my interest," Zhang says.

As a result, she joined Tsinghua's Global Environment Program, which covers environmental science and engineering, international relations, environmental economy and management, environmental law, overseas exchanges and learning.

"It just satisfied my interest in interdisciplinary studies," she says.

After entering the international environmental class, she has had more opportunities to understand various global environmental problems and solutions.

Zhang has participated in various activities that broadened her view on the environment, including the 21st Tripartite Environment Ministers Meeting in 2019 and the 2021 Youth4Climate summit, which convened some 400 youth climate leaders from 186 countries－two each from nearly every signatory to the Paris Agreement－to adopt a collective declaration to be presented to ministers attending Pre-COP26 in Milan, and delivered by Italy to the delegates at COP26.

"As the only Chinese representative in the audience, it was very shocking for me to feel the anger, sadness and helplessness of hundreds of young people," Zhang says. "At the same time, the unprecedented enthusiasm and determination demonstrated by the delegates to carry out climate action has further inspired me to continue to participate in, and contribute to the process of, addressing climate change."

Zhang has contributed to the development of several important environmental reports, including a global case review of nature-based solutions for climate change that was published at the COP15 in October 2021.

Over the past four years, more than 1 million Chinese who were born in the 1990s and 2000s have donated money online to Chu Wenwen's efforts in protecting the wild Mengxin beavers in Altay prefecture of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

The beaver has been listed as a first-class State-protected animal in China.

Chu from Xinjiang initiated the "beaver canteen" program, which seeks to develop 400,000 willow shrubs for the wild animal.

With their efforts, beaver families increased from 162 to 190 over the past four years, representing a 20 percent jump in the population of the semiaquatic rodent.

Chu has followed the work of her father since childhood. He was engaged in wildlife research. She spent her childhood in the Altay Mountains in Xinjiang. Since there were no other children at the field station, beavers, snow leopards, wild horses, lynxes, golden eagles and brown bears became her "friends".

Upon graduation, she went back to her hometown out of love for nature. Initially, she often saw beavers die from fighting for habitats in the Ulungur River area. Willow shrub is their most important food source, but the plant was dwindling in the area at the time.

"I am lucky to live in such a great era when young people can fulfill their aspirations while the country strongly supports nature conservation," she said during her speech as the youth representative to the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity in Kunming, Southwest China's Yunnan province in October.

Young people stand to lose most from the devastation of natural environments and the loss of species, says UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a video message to the UN biodiversity conference.

"They are crying out for change. And they are mobilizing for a sustainable future for all," Guterres says.

Speaking about his future plan, Cheng says he is interested in working for international organizations like the UN.

"I may also want to become a scholar so that I can contribute to environmental protection from an academic perspective," he says.

Cheng is calling on his peers to stick to their passion.

"Sometimes we might feel our interest is simplistic, or even naive, but, as we see and learn more, it will evolve into something that is worth our lifelong effort," he says.