Climate Action Figures
A safe place for youth to share steps they are taking to mitigate climate change.
Climate Action Figures
Season 2, Episode 9: Porag
Youth Insights from COP 29: A Bangladeshi Perspective with Porag
In this episode of Climate Action Figures, host John Whidden interviews Porag from Bangladesh about his experiences at COP 29 held in Baku, Azerbaijan. The discussion covers the challenges young delegates face, including overpriced food and limited influence in decision-making. Porag shares his views on gender representation, the impact of climate change on Bangladeshi women, and the systemic issues inhibiting global climate action. Highlighting interactions with global youth and UN officials, Porag also critiques the COP process and offers advice to North American audiences. He concludes with his personal efforts to mitigate climate impact and the hopeful role of young activists in driving change.
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:38 QuickFix from Lisa in Calgary
02:01 Porag's Experience at COP29
02:31 Challenges Faced at COP29
03:58 Inspiring Moments and Key Connections
05:26 Gender Representation and Climate Impact in Bangladesh
09:49 Youth Voice and Global Climate Politics
12:01 Reflections on COP29 and Future Hopes
18:23 Youth for NDCs and Local Climate Actions
20:17 Personal Climate Actions and Rickshaw Drivers
23:10 Final Thoughts and Messages of Hope
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Hello everyone. My name is Porag. I'm from Bangladesh and welcome to Climate Action Figures.
John:Well, hello and welcome to another edition of Climate Action Figures. My name is John Whidden and I am very excited again this week to be bringing you a young person who has just been at COP 29. So in a moment you will meet Porag and he will tell us all about that experience. But first, this week's QuickFix, which comes to us from Lisa in Calgary. Lisa says, shoveling snow onto the front lawn, and especially farther back onto the lawn, allows it to absorb water, double benefit of providing more water to the lawn and groundwater instead of going down the storm drain, and avoiding the freeze thaw on your sidewalk that leads to so much ice. So thank you very much to Lisa for sending that in, and welcome Porag! What do you think about that QuickFix?
Porag:Oh, first of all, I'm very like, we don't experience snow because it's already as cold as it is. So snow would be devastating for us. But on a serious note, I think that's a very good thing to do. And this example, you know, also shows us that, yeah, nature does provide, we don't need to create extra facilities to water our lawns or to water our gardens. Nature provides that if we use the resources wisely.
John:Have you ever seen snow? Have you experienced snow?
Porag:Uh, unfortunately, or. I'll also call it Fortunately Not Yet, but, but I want to, I want to experience snow for at least once in my life.
John:I just finished shovelling now for about a half an hour, so hopefully you don't have to experience too much snow.
Porag:Mm hmm.
John:Porag, excited to have you on the program today. You were just at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, is that correct? Can you tell us a little bit about what that experience was like for you?
Porag:I'll be, I'll be very honest with you. Given the purpose of COP29, I must say I was super exhausted and the outcome made me quite a bit sad.
John:We heard some similar things from one of the delegates from Thailand, Tanvi, who was on last week, and she talked about being hungry all the time. Was it the same for you?
Porag:Oh, yeah. So this is, this is One fundamental issue of COPS is that the food in the venue is always overpriced, super expensive and, and we don't have that kind of money. I cannot afford to buy a burger with 25 euros on a daily basis, right? 25 euros is a lot of money in my country. So, yeah, it's, Always super expensive food, super expensive drinks. All the foods were expensive and it felt like they were deliberately making the food expensive so that we stay hungry and we couldn't eat. focus on the things that we plan to do. So yeah, I was completely agree with Tanvi that food was super expensive and I was always hungry.
John:You had to feed yourself somehow.
Porag:So what I did is I had a big breakfast in the morning outside the venue in my Airbnb where I stayed. And then I carried Snacks and dry foods like biscuits, cookies, and other stuff that I could carry in my bag. And whenever I got a bit hungry, I used to eat a couple of cookies or maybe eat a small piece of cake and drink a lot of water. So yeah, that's how I got through the daily hunger,
John:Now, uh, we'll get to your feelings about the results from the conference in a few minutes, but, uh, from that, was it inspiring to be there amongst all these, uh, people who are focused on one thing that is obviously important to you?
Porag:Yeah, absolutely. So this was my third COP and I must say each COP inspires me more in terms of the people who attend COP because the climate movement is very big and it's global, right? So we don't get to meet each other on a regular basis. COP might be the only platform that allows us to meet each other and, you know, to connect with each other on a physical level and to get together to push for our common climate goals. So yeah,
John:Would you like to give us an example of an interesting person you met this time?
Porag:this time I met some friends from UNDP, uh, so I also work with UNFCCC's official children and youth constituency, which is known as the YOUNGO, so from that, from YOUNGO, we've been working closely with I've been meeting a couple of people from UNDP for the past couple of years, but unfortunately, I could never meet them. So this was the COP when I first got to meet them and you know, UNDP, how, what's the right, I use the word diplomatic space, right? So
John:Tell us what
Porag:UNDP is. UNDP is United Nations Development Program. It's a UN body and you know, they're supposed to be diplomatic. So you don't really get to know how they are as a person. So I met with them in person this year and they're very good people, very funny, very jolly, very like-minded people. And I really liked meeting them and really. Like getting to know them on a personal level.
John:Porag, I'm curious to know about the balance between young men and young women. read studies recently that show that young women in Canada are more concerned about climate change than young men. I'm curious to know if there were fairly equal representation from young women and young men there.
Porag:Oh, no, this, this has never been a case where there were equal representations from young men and young women, young women, because young men were in the majority the number of young women attending COP is always less than men, because this might be a social issue, but the number of young women representing in representing their countries or maybe their organizations or maybe their visions, have always been very less than young men at COPs. But one good thing about this COP is the number of young women at COP is increasing with every COP.
John:Me take that to your country level for a moment. Do you feel like in Bangladesh that young women are affected more on an emotional or mental health level by climate change?
Porag:Yeah, as you may know that Bangladesh is severely hit by climate change, right. I mean, we are one of the most vulnerable countries, but when you dive deep and look in the gender spectrum. Women, especially young women, are always hit harder than men because in our country the, some of the major climate issues are flooding and water salinity, right? I mean, salinity. Intrusion. there are reports that say that Bangladesh is one of the countries where the of child marriage is higher than its counterparts, or it might be the highest in the whole world. And climate change plays a very big role in that, because what happens in our country is, we are not a very rich country, and most of the people in our country earn their bread and butter on a daily basis. So what happens is, whenever a family is hit by climate induced disaster, the girl of that family is always married off, most of the times married off, because. When a family is hit and they don't have any livelihood, the parents tend to marry their daughter off so that they don't have to bear her expenses anymore. So this is a mental issue and an emotional issue. Just imagine a 15 year old girl getting married just because they lost their home due to a flood. And also, in almost all the cases in the climate vulnerable areas, whenever there is a climate disaster happening, right after the disaster, most of the girls of that area are dropped off from school or from their educational institutions, just because the parents cannot afford to educate them anymore. So these are severe mental health issues. Just imagine a 12 year old girl not being able to go to school. Just because there was a disaster in their area. So yeah, in my country, women are severely impacted and severely affected by climate change on an emotional and on a mental health level.
John:Porag, you've connected that to climate change, but does the average young woman in Bangladesh connect that to climate change or not?
Porag:I think no, not only the average women or young girls. I think most of our, the people in our country don't really connect these issues with climate change because my country is burdened with so many social and economic issues, we don't still see climate change as the umbrella issue of all the issues. But the scenario is changing. People are getting more educated and more aware about climate change.
John:How about between youth and adults in, uh, Bangladeshi society? Is there a big difference or is it, fairly equal in terms of understanding that climate change is a big problem?
Porag:Oh, it's a huge difference. I mean, most of our adults don't even believe in climate change, we are quite a religious country. And many people from our previous generations, Say that the disaster are the wrath of God. I mean, the God is testing us or the God is giving us these disasters because we did something wrong. They don't still believe in climate change, but on the other hand, young people, they are, they have more access to information. They have more access to knowledge and there is the internet. So young people know and young people are more aware of the issue than the elder generations.
John:Let's go back to COP29 for a moment, after your experience there, Porag, do you feel like the youth voice was represented there?
Porag:Uh, no. So, this is, I think, another global social issue. That's the term I usually use. Global social issue that young people are still not taken seriously, you know. Yeah, they will praise us a lot for the works we do on ground, the movements we build, or the actions that we take, but they still don't take us seriously. And when it comes to COP and the global climate decision making processes, yeah, we might be given slots to speak, but when it comes to the actual decision making, our voices and our recommendations aren't exactly reflected there. And scenario was even worse at COP29, because Most of the times we didn't even get a chance to speak or intervene in a negotiation room.
John:Now, our guest last week, Tanvi, said that it was difficult to be heard when meetings kept being cut short, and she attributed this to the Azerbaijani president. Do you agree with that?
Porag:exactly. This is what happens when you put a oil tycoon as the president of a climate process. You see the conflict of interest, right?
John:So the president of Azerbaijan is an oil tycoon.
Porag:Yeah. One of the biggest businessmen of the country and his entire business is oil. As you may know, Azerbaijan is Super loaded with oil and Azerbaijan is one of the very first countries to actually start selling fossil fuel on a commercial level or on a business level and the president, oh my god, the guy is super rich, super dripped in oil and that guy was the President of COP29
John:he was personally trying to interfere with the youth voice, getting that message across.
Porag:Yeah, absolutely, because there were more than 1770 oil lobbyists at COP. Just imagine having almost 2, 000 oil lobbyists in a space where we are actively fighting against them. And these oil lobbyists had access to negotiation rooms, had access to closed door meetings. You can understand what purpose they were there to serve, and what purpose the presidency was serving.
John:So I understand that you feel that there was not a, A lot of progress made, but were there, was there some progress made there?
Porag:No, I think COP29 took us a bit back because as you may know COP29 was being called as the finance cop. the global vision was to bring out a new financial mechanism that would support countries like mine to Progress Our Climate Actions And To Progress Our National Commitments To Prevent Climate Change And The Climate Crisis In Our Countries, Right? And I Mean The Global Demand Was 5 Trillion Dollars Up Until 2035. And Guess What They Settled On? They Settled On A Mere 300 Billion Dollars. That's like 5 percent of what we asked. with this new finance mechanism, and no progress, no visible progress on the loss and damage mechanism, COP 29 just took us back a few steps, and there is no substantive progress that we can look up to, and that we can rely on that, yeah, this progress, or this new decision will at least support us in accelerating our climate action.
John:So clearly that's going to be a lot of the global North countries coming to that kind of, agreement. I wonder, Porag, how do you feel about, the global North in terms of climate change when, clearly. We have been producing greenhouse gases for a long time and you are feeling the effects of that. Is there, do you have a strong feeling about that?
Porag:this is something I've been saying from the very beginning of COP 29, that having 29 COPs is the failure of COPs. We don't need 29 years to reach a common consensus that, yeah, We are dying, we are drowning, and we need to take action now to save ourselves. And this is taking 29 years just because the global north countries are blocking it. They very well know what they have done in the past, I mean, what their historical pollutions are, and what they owe to people where their accountabilities lie. But they just choose to ignore it just because they can and just because no one can say anything to them So yeah, global north countries have not been acting how they should act.
John:If you could give us one piece of advice, you're speaking to North Americans on this program, what would that advice be?
Porag:thank you I think I think this is a very wonderful space to say this and I think this message I'll not give this message to the North American governments But rather I'd give this message to the people governments might be corrupt But A country's population cannot be corrupt and I think we who are the common people who we hold a higher moral ground than our governments. So what we really need now is that you people pushing your governments to channel better climate finance to the damaged countries or to the global south countries because it's really important that the public create strong demand of the things that are actually right, that are actually justified to their government so that the governments are actually forced to do what's right because we cannot force them. You can.
John:Porag, as you consider What has been accomplished or not accomplished in the past 29 COPS is it something we should keep doing?
Porag:I think no. I think COP has become a dead process. I'll be very honest with you because As you may know, COP runs on a consensus based decision making system. Even if one country disagrees with a decision, that decision is dead. I think that's a very flawed process. I have been following Global Stock Tech Negotiations. what GST is, GST is a guiding document for the other mechanisms or other work programs under COP and under the Paris Agreement. So there was this decision making happening on inclusion and, and there was this talks about engaging non-state actors as active stakeholders in the decision making process. Most of the countries agreed, one country didn't. That's why it did not make it to a decision. this is not the first time this has happened. This has been happening for the past 29 years. So I think, I think the COP process should stop. I mean, yeah, there should be one more COP. The next year's COP, I mean, the Brazil's COP. We are really looking forward to that because Brazil is also severely hit by the climate crisis and we expect a lot from Brazil. So let's see. If the Brazil COP is a success, we can rethink about the entire process. But if it's a failure, COP processes should just stop. And there should be new, faster, and more effective processes that can take us, to what we want. 29 years, 30 years is just too long of a time to come to a decision.
John:But if we take COP away, what would replace it? Who would replace it? Is it going to be a United Nations responsibility? I mean, who is going to do something about it?
Porag:this can be a UN responsibility, but the mechanism has to change. Either it has to be a super majority or a majority based process, because one country should not be blocking the demands of 194 countries, you know?
John:When you, went home from COP29, is there anything you took from that, even though there were some disappointments? Did it change anything in you and how you deal with life in Bangladesh?
Porag:Yeah, and this is the thing, this is the progress I was talking about. COP 29 was the first COP when group of countries actually spoke up directly against the injustice they have been facing. I, I don't know if you've seen the news, but it was all over the news that many countries are walking out of the negotiation rooms and many countries openly saying that they reject the decision. And this is, this is the thing. The first time such thing has happened. And I think the countries are finally starting to take a stand. As an activist, I think diplomacy is a very slow process and seeing these countries finally standing up and finally calling out these blockers, and I think that's really inspiring and that's another thing that inspired me at COP. And that's something I have taken from COP 29 back to my country that no matter how powerful the opponent is, and no matter how much. Money they hold, if it's wrong, it's wrong. And if there's something that's wrong, that's just wrong. And we don't need to live with that wrongdoing just because they are more powerful than us.
John:we wrap up today, Porag, I really want you to be able to share what you're doing with your organization, Youth for NDCs, at home there. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that?
Porag:Oh yeah. So a bit of background, NDC is the Nationally Determined Contributions Process, right? So NDC is a country's commitment. towards achieving the Global Climate Goal from Paris Agreement, which is keeping the global temperature rise around 1. 5C by 2030. what Youth for NDCs does is that we engage young people from the country in this national process in a more informed and updated manner. So another background is my country also has an NDC, but the issue is You My country doesn't mention children or youth for even once, and NDCs are seen as the mother documents of the climate process because NDCs guide all the other processes like adaptation, mitigation, finance, everything. So, my country did not include children and youth in this mother document process, and you cannot ensure climate justice by leaving us out, right? So, what we do is we train a lot of young people and we inform them about NDCs and their roles in NDCs because NDCs are a bit technical as these are policy documents, they are a bit technical so it's a bit hard to understand. So, what User NDC does is we simplify the NDCs, we localize the contents and then we do a lot of capacity building, we do a lot of reviews, a lot of consultations because NDCs, we believe, should be a public document, and the common people of a country should be able to connect with a document that directly affects their life. So that's what we do. We bridge the gap between the national process and the common people.
John:All the best as you go forward with that.
Porag:Thank you. Thank
John:Porag, a lot of action your whole life. You're an activist about the climate, but, have you picked a small climate action for us today that you could share with us?
Porag:this might be a contradictory given the work I do. So I have, I need to fly a lot because I oftentimes need to attend different things. So flying leaves a very large carbon footprint, right? So what I do to reduce my carbon footprint or stay a bit more climate positive is that I don't use any fossil fuel driven vehicles when I'm in the country. I try to ignore as much as many fossil fuel driven vehicles as possible. So, in order to avoid those, what I tend to do is I usually walk when it's a shorter distance. and it fits a bit longer distance. I use rickshaw This is a rickshaw and this is a pedal-driven vehicle, and this does not do any carbon emissions. So this is a way I tend to reduce my carbon footprint, and this is my. Personal Climate Action.
John:I, sometimes I've heard that rickshaw drivers can be abused in some ways. Is that true? Or is it, do they get some fair payment for doing what they do?
Porag:there is good and bad in everything, right? So, yeah, so it really depends on the passengers. Most of the times it's good passengers and the rickshaw drivers get a fair wage or payment for the work they do.
John:Basically, Porag, you're saying that rickshaws are like taxis except no carbon footprint, right? And are they readily available? Are they lined up like our taxis are?
Porag:Oh, rickshaws are super available. if I go out on the street right now, I'll see at least 10 to 15 rickshaws standing. an interesting and also a very sad fact, the reason behind such availability of rickshaws is that many of the rickshaw pullers are climate migrants. So what happens is that they are usually hit by a climate induced disaster and they lose their livelihood in their villages. So they tend to come to the capital city in search for livelihoods and many of them end up being rickshaw pullers. I wouldn't say it's enough ways to have a good life. Yeah, they also earn hand to mouth and they go by, and it's at least better than living in their villages where they were hit by a climate induced disaster and they practically lost everything on their livelihood.
John:to remind listening in from North America, would an average rickshaw driver make in one day? Let's use American dollars since that's common between us.
Porag:So on a good day, a rickshaw driver usually makes from$15 to$20, I would say. only if they have a very good day, they get a lot of passengers and Pull the rickshaw for, let's say, around 12 to 14 hours.
John:Now, Porag, before we let you go, we need to ask you one final question. What gives you hope?
Porag:This, this is actually quite a difficult question because after COP 29, um, hope has become a bit difficult word because like I mentioned earlier that we are literally going back in the process. We're taking back steps, but one thing that really gives me hope is seeing that a lot of young people feel like me and they think like me, you know, this is, something that always also inspires me that whenever I remember I'm not alone in this fight and I can find more people, many more people will hold my hand if I fail or if I fall down. I think that gives me hope. In one sentence, young people give me hope because one thing about me and the people I work with is that we are radically positive and we know that we can bring the change and we know that we can take care of the world. So, yeah, that gives me hope. Young people give me hope.
John:Porag, you are passionate, clearly. You're an activist, and I love what you said because you actually give me hope and I, I think sometimes it's easy to get down and hearing your stories and what you're doing, I think will give our listeners and our viewers great hope too. We thank you so much for sharing your perspective. It's so different than ours here in North America and we just so much appreciate you being with us today.
Porag:Thank you. Thank you, John, for creating this platform, you know, where people like me can share our thoughts. And I think, I think it's really refreshing and really helpful for me as well, to be able to speak in that manner and to be able to openly share what has happened and how we feel about it. So thank you for creating this platform.
John:And thank you dear listener. We will be back again next Tuesday with another young person who has experienced COP 29. Don't miss out on that Climate Action Figure, and until then,
Porag:I actually forgot what I was supposed to say!
John:Until then!
Porag:Go figures!