Students and entrepreneurs state their views at COP28

Lai Yourui, an 8-year-old student from Kunshan, Jiangsu province, felt a little lonely when he took part in the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP28.

However, he thoroughly enjoyed attending the sessions, where he learned a lot and visited the pavilions of different nations.

Despite nearly 100,000 people registering for the annual UN gathering, held this year in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, from Nov 30 to Wednesday, Lai failed to find any children as young as himself among them.

He was frequently greeted warmly by COP28 delegates from around the world, who expressed a high degree of curiosity about his nationality and age.

Many of those who greeted the boy asked to take a photo with him. They also asked him to teach them to say "How are you?" in Chinese.

As probably the youngest person from China attending the gathering, Lai is just one example of the nation's increasing awareness of the need to tackle climate change and protect the environment.

Lai insists on going to school by bike, accompanied by his mother — a journey that usually takes about 20 minutes. When it is raining heavily, his mother sends him to school on an electric bicycle.

The family seldom orders takeout food, as this will result in polluting plastic waste. "Energy is also consumed as deliverymen bring customers takeouts," Lai said, adding that this energy may not be green.

On Friday, at a side event to COP28, he delivered a speech in English themed on the Yangtze River, which he referred to as the father river of the Chinese nation.

In addition to expressing concerns over the loss of habitat for the Yangtze alligator, he shared with listeners from around the world actions taken by the Chinese government to protect the creatures.

The species, which is endemic to China, has become critically endangered due to human activities and climate change.

A special conservation area has been built just for the Yangtze alligators, Lai said.

He also listed some of the "small things "he and his classmates have done to help protect the Yangtze and the alligators, such as reducing the discharge of domestic sewage and minimizing the use of laundry supplies.

"Let's all do our part to protect the environment and biodiversity for future generations," he said.

Lai was not the only junior COP28 attendee from China — one of the other examples being Ma Yiyuan from Beijing No 18 High School, who is 17.

Traveling to Dubai for COP28 was not easy for Ma, who is in her last year at high school.

At her school, she heads an environmental protection organization called Lyuyin, which translates as "green shade".

On Nov 30, Ma attended the China pavilion at COP28, where she described how she and other members of the organization promote a low-carbon lifestyle on campus.

For example, they designed a facility to help blind people find the right trash bin to dump their well-sorted waste.

Ma flew back to China the next day to take an art college admissions test on Dec 7. Five days later, she sat the English listening and speaking tests for college admission.

Apart from listening to people from different countries, and seeing how they conduct environmental protection work, she said, "I want to tell the world that we are also taking action in this regard."

Entrepreneurs active

Regular participants to the UN gathering said the number of entrepreneurs attending it rose this year.

Addressing an event on the sidelines of COP28 on Dec 1, Fu Chengyu, former chairman of Sinopec, said he believed the UN gathering this year had the largest participation to date from Chinese entrepreneurs.

"I have met at least 200, and even 300,(Chinese) entrepreneurs here," he said.

Fu said this is a sign that the nation's entrepreneurs have started to incorporate the philosophy of green, low-carbon development into their plans for the future.

Yang Peidan, executive director of C Team, also called China Champions for Climate Action, also noticed a record-high number of Chinese entrepreneurs at COP28.

C Team is an NGO committed to supporting Chinese entrepreneurs in being action leaders who address climate change.

Yang first took part in the UN climate change conference by attending COP24 in Katowice, Poland, in 2018. That year, only eight or nine Chinese companies took part in Enterprise Day at the China pavilion, she said.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Yang said more than 20 Chinese companies took part in events at the Chinese enterprise pavilion at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, in 2021.

Yang added that COP28 attracted a record-high number of Chinese companies, with many of their representatives attending numerous sessions of the gathering.

She said representatives from at least 90 Chinese companies spoke at events in the China pavilion this year.

"COP28 has not only seen a record number of (Chinese) companies, but also diversified participation modes," she said.

For example, by joining hands with the All-China Environment Federation, LONGi Green Energy Technology Co, a leading enterprise in China's solar power industry, set up a Solar+ Pavilion, where numerous events were held, Yang said.

Wang Zekai, managing director of the Global Committee on Social Business for Sustainable Development Goals, first attended the annual UN climate change conference in 2009, and has missed only two of the gatherings since then.

Wang, also founder of the NGO Youthink Center, said that at COP15 in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2009, it was rare to encounter another Chinese.

"You had a very cordial feeling when you met another Chinese. We warmly greeted each other," he said.

At COP28 in Dubai, Chinese could be seen everywhere, but they seldom greeted each other unless they were introduced by friends, he added.

Previously, few entrepreneurs took part in UN climate change conferences.

But as China's climate change targets become an increasingly hot topic, more entrepreneurs have decided to join the meetings, he said, adding that many of them are not involved in areas related to climate change.

China aims to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and realize carbon neutrality before 2060.

Wang said he believes that the number of Chinese delegates to COP28 was up several times on the figure for last year.

He said he found that politicians from some nations are highly interested in China's low-carbon transition.

When he spoke with Terrance Drew, prime minister of the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis, Wang told him of his experiences of building a smart zero-carbon industrial park in downtown Beijing.

He said Drew was very excited to hear about the park, and expressed a strong interest in making Saint Kitts and Nevis zero-carbon.

One entrepreneur active at the UN climate change conference is Chen Suping, founder of the Handle Climate Change Film Festival, who took part in COP for the first time at the 2015 edition in Paris.

At a news conference on Saturday at COP28, Chen, chairman of Shenzhen Handle Cultural Investment Co, which is based in Shenzhen, Guandong province, and is one of the festival sponsors, said the ninth edition of the festival will be held in October in Shenzhen.

"We have collected 11,403 films from 130 countries and regions around the world at the past eight film festivals," he said, adding the public has free access to all these award-winning movies at the event.

Despite the festival being expensive to stage, Chen is determined to continue with it.

"The event aims to popularize knowledge about climate change, raise people's climate awareness, and make contributions to protecting the planet we call home," the 58-year-old said.

One of the event's priorities is to encourage more young people to take climate actions, he said.

This is why 8-year-old Lai Yourui's mother, Zhao Shanshan, brought him to COP28.

"I hope my boy can learn more about climate change ... and then throw himself into more (climate) actions," Zhao said.