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Danica Sun, 17, recalls the first moment she felt the call to do something for the environment was a bit cliché: As an elementary school kid, she was unnerved by one of the many viral photos of bedraggled, emaciated polar bears floating on melting slabs of ice.
But the issue really hit home a few years later when she was working on a school report about permafrost — a frozen layer of soil below the ground’s surface — thawing in the Arctic and releasing thousands of tons of methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
“I realized that climate change isn’t just some future issue that only impacts polar bears,” Sun said. “I realized it’s happening now and it impacts me and everyone around me, and especially my generation. At that point, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I really need to do something about this.’”
Now, the high school senior’s activism has taken her to a faraway land and one much warmer than the North Pole — Dubai in the United Arab Emirates — for the 28th annual United Nations Climate Change conference or COP28. The summit, which runs through Dec. 12, brings together thousands of people, including politicians, business leaders, climate experts and environmental advocates from around the world.
The global summits are convened to find ways to address the climate crisis, such as limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, helping vulnerable communities adapt and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
“Growing up, I was always a really quiet girl and I never would have imagined going to something like this,” Sun told the Tribune over the phone before her trip overseas. “But I think … to bring about widespread, real change, I can’t just do it myself. I have to be out there, using my voice.”
Sun, who is from Chicago, is one of six area students who arrived in the Middle Eastern country Saturday to participate in the conference. They are the COP28 delegates from a local youth environmental advocacy program called It’s Our Future.
“They’re very much of a team. They just knock me out every day,” said program manager Rachel Rosner, who is chaperoning the young activists this week. “It’s a huge privilege to have the capacity to empower young people to make a difference, to connect them.”
Rosner said that COVID-19, school shootings and climate change are just some of the many issues younger generations have to deal with, which has made some youths wise beyond their years. But other young folks might feel paralyzed by how enormous the issues are — so giving them the tools to do something about it, she said, feels really meaningful.
One of the other young activists in the group is Natasha Bhatia, 17, a senior at Hinsdale Central High School, who with Sun, reestablished in 2022 the local chapter of Fridays For Future, the global climate movement that began in 2018 when Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg started organizing school strikes every Friday.
[ Chicago’s youth takes part in global climate strike targeting fossil fuel funding ]
“Chicago is such a big city,” Sun remembers thinking. “We have to be a leader in the climate movement.”
The two young women met and became friends through It’s Our Future before they decided to restart the local strikes. Bhatia said she believes young people are crucial to the climate movement, so even though she is excited to be attending COP28, she also recognizes “the gravity” of speaking with world leaders on behalf of others her age.
“Our voices can be really powerful in making a change, and I think that a lot of youth don’t feel that way right now,” she said. “But I want to be that voice, that wake-up call for others that you can make a difference. Whether it’s in your community, whether it’s at your state level, whether it’s at a national or global level. You can make a difference.”
At the conference, the six young activists will connect with politicians and other leaders from their generation, but they will also represent the thousands of Chicagoans who are facing the alarming consequences of climate change.
On Friday, Bhatia will talk at a panel titled “Dear World Leaders” and hosted by the U.S. Department of State. Afterward, Sun will participate in a roundtable discussion to express her hopes and demands for change with U.S. political figures, including John Kerry, former secretary of state and now the U.S. special presidential envoy for climate.
Sun will also participate in three panels during the conference, two concerning youth mental health in the face of climate disaster and one about using climate literacy to advance climate justice.
To inform her discussions at the international conference, Sun said she plans to draw from her activism experiences, which include improving sustainability at her school, leading strikes and working with state legislators.
She said her initial concerns about climate change led her to adopt a vegan diet and thrift all her clothes, but over time she realized something that broadened her approach to environmentalism.
“My ideas really are only as powerful as my ability to communicate them and influence others to change,” she said.
As a student at the Illinois Math and Science Academy in Aurora, Sun is co-president of the environmental club, where she helps plan educational and community engagement events. She is also involved in implementing a municipal composting initiative to reduce food waste at the boarding school, where students eat three meals a day.
At the state level, Sun and other members of It’s Our Future have been part of a group pushing for a climate literacy bill in the Illinois General Assembly, working closely with Rep. Kimberly du Buclet, a Chicago Democrat. Similar to a law in New Jersey, which in 2020 began requiring public schools to teach about climate change in most subjects and across grade levels, the Illinois bill would introduce a climate curriculum to empower students and their families to take meaningful climate action.
But the group’s literacy efforts go beyond the classroom.
“It’s making sure everyone is aware of these really personal impacts of climate change, and also that they’re aware of the benefits of climate solutions,” Sun said. “So, for example, adopting electric vehicles (allows for) cleaner air, leading to lower asthma rates, lower premature deaths. … These climate solutions, they’re not just good for the earth, they’re good for you.”
Afternoon Briefing
Sun is also on the leadership team of Climate Reality Chicago, part of a national nonprofit for climate change education and advocacy founded by Al Gore, environmentalist and former vice president of the United States — whom she hopes to meet at COP28.
The local chapter of Climate Reality has largely focused on electrification, and Sun excitedly remembers attending board meetings and public hearings to encourage Pace — Chicago’s suburban bus system and one of the largest services in North America — to commit to zero emissions by 2040 and establish fully electric fleets.
[ First Pace electric bus fleet coming to Waukegan next year; free fare for ADA riders proposed ]
“Fossil fuels cannot be a part of my future,” Sun said, reflecting on the centrality of clean energy in her advocacy efforts. “They must be phased out to ensure that I have a safe and habitable planet to live in and that I can ensure one for my children as well.”
Sun said people in her generation can be discouraged when they are immediately dismissed if they bring up climate change during dinner. So she has a message for the adults at the table.
“A lot of youth have this burden of the climate crisis; we are the ones who are trying to fight for a habitable planet to grow older in,” Sun said. “I believe that we need adults to support and empower us, and also to shake up and go into this fight along with us. … This summer, when we saw the smoke floating across North America, all these floods — I really saw a glimpse (of) what my future will look like. And I think it’s a lot for people my age to deal with.”
At 11 a.m. Central time on Wednesday, Sun and Bhatia will speak live from Dubai during a virtual webinar for Chicago high school classes and clubs. Registration is open at go.climategen.org/youthcop28.