The US Consulate General, Kolkata hosted a conclave as the final event under a project titled 'YUVA (Young Unheard Voices for Action) on Climate Change’ at the USA Pavilion, International Kolkata Book Fair, Karunamoyee, Salt Lake, Kolkata on January 30.

The event, held in collaboration with Prodigal’s Home, Dimapur Nagaland partnered with BRIDGE, Bhutan Ecological Society (BES), Bangladesh Youth Environment Initiative (BYEI), and PlaceMaking Foundation, Manipur, kicked off with welcome and introductory notes given by Juan Clar, Deputy Director American Centre in Kolkata, Imliben Lemtur Project Director Yuva and Prithviraj Nath, Director, Bridge, an official statement read.

Selected youth from India, Bangladesh, and Bhutan, pitched their ideas on climate action, to a panel jury-mentors comprising of experts, climate activists, development partners, and private sector entities, it stated.

Jury-mentors included Amrita Basu, Educator, and President, Rotary Club of Calcutta Metro City; Ochintya Sharma, Co-Founder of Oxome Consulting, and Chevening Rolls-Royce Science and Innovation Leadership Fellow, University of Oxford; Rakhi Das Sinha, Climate Activist, and Member, Warrior Moms; Sahana Ghosh, Associate Editor, Nature India; Saikat Biswas, Associate Director, Cognizant Technology Solutions; Koushik Chattaopadhyay, Associate Director, Cognizant Technology Solutions; Quazi Rumman Dastgir, Consul for Political and Economic Affairs at the US Consulate General in Kolkata. 

The aim is to help them connect with other like-minded youth for coalition building, get support and further mentorship opportunities for their ideas, to ultimately lead to concrete on-grounds implementation and scaling-up of these climate action ideas.
 
Ideas include those on e-waste recycling, plastics management and recycling, developing plastics alternatives at the local levels, water conservation and management, sustainable agri-horticulture, ecotourism, and the likes, it added.