Young people lead green drive

"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.

Contact the writer at yangfeiyue@chinadaily.com.cn