The International Climate Champion’s Action Trail in the Nilgiris was an experience I will remember for the rest of my life.

Finding myself in the midst of its natural beauty and its cultural richness, it was both heartbreaking and motivating to become aware of the challenges this region is facing due to climate change. It is heartbreaking to see the evidence that we human beings are compromising the fantastic natural system which Mother Nature has spent millions of years building up. Heartbreaking because the people that are the least responsible for climate change will have to bear its starkest consequences.

The Nilgiris experience was motivating because I believe we still have time to change the current course. There is still a window of opportunity to change our ways and let our children experience the same beautiful nature that we have witnessed and benefited from. Something that strengthens this belief is meeting and getting to know such wonderful and engaged young people from the ten countries represented at the Nilgiris Camp. Learning about their projects, feeling their passion, ambition and faith has touched my heart and made me confident: if it is this kind of people that will be leading our world in the future, we have a fair chance of mediating damages previous generations have left us with.

Read the Nilgiris Declaration here.