By Pickson Chipeso

Lilongwe, October 22, Mana: The youth forum for National Transformation (YOFONAT) has urged youths to engage in climate change justice projects as one way of protecting the environment.

In an interview with Malawi News Agency (Mana) on Tuesday, Executive Director of YOFONAT Chifundo Robert, said they are implementing a project in Phalombe and Nsanje districts where they are sensitizing the youth on how to control climate change.

"As YOFONAT, we have targeted Phalombe and Nsanje because these areas are prone to natural disasters, such as the recent impact of Cyclone Freddy," he said.

Robert added that mostly effects of climate change affect young people more than all other demographics and he revealed that statistics shows that almost 70% affected by Cyclone Freddy were young people.

"The youth in Malawi are those between the ages of 18 and 35, so we thought it was important to make them the focus of this project," he explained.

In his remarks, environmental and climate expert Godfrey Mfiti stated that the youth are currently playing a minimal role in shaping the country's future.

"Once the youth take on a leading role and gain a deeper understanding of climate justice, it means we have secured a better future," he said.

“It stipulates that we have higher number of youth that needs to participate fully in climate justice. Previously we used to have more of technical issues, but now we appreciate that climate justice is order of the day through several impacts that injustice to climate brings in the country such as cyclones, floods, irritable rainfall pattern,” he added.

The project which commenced this month is called Youth for Climate Justice and is targeting young people because they are the ones leading various social movement activities in Malawi.

The main goal of the project is to empower young leaders into climate activists to respond effectively to climate change through capacity building.