COY11 at distance from Spain: Carlota's testimony

by Carlota Cruz Díez

I was one of the young Spanish “Let’s Take Care of the Planet”- participants who were elected to participate in COY11. Since the moment I knew I was one of them and that I was travelling to Paris in order to make the message from the youth of my country heard by people from all over the word, I got very excited.

One of my biggest dreams was going to come true! I had never heard of COY11 before and I didn’t know that our voice was really going to be important to adults!

Suddenly came the attacks in Paris and my “near reality” was again a dream and I got sad...

But then I thought “Why am I sad?”

So, I started to spread the word in my new school, asking my friends to tell their other friends how to pollute less the world... I made many conferences in my new school and made people change their mind.

Maybe, I couldn’t travel to Paris and make our common voice heard, but I can make my voice heard. So…if it’s not now, when? If not us, who?

Alone we go faster, but together we go further.

COY11 at distance from Spain: Jade's testimony

by Jade Vega Pueyo

I woke up on 14th November and knew about the massacre in Paris. I couldn’t believe it, I was totally shocked by what happened and felt sorry for all the people who had lost their lives so cruelly. Afterwards, one thing came to my mind: the celebration of the COP/COY had to take place, but a few days later I realized that the security was a main issue and understood the decision of the French authorities of not letting the youngest attend the 11th Conference of Youth.

However I had to do something. I just couldn’t sit back and ignore what’s going on with the environment. We have to make people conscious of the fact that caring for the Earth and solidarity must be top priorities for everybody. Therefore I decided to take an active part in most of the activities on Climate Change programmed by my school during the last week of November. For example, my school, together with other schools in Gran Canaria, took part in a parade through the main streets of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. So we all had the opportunity to raise our voices so that everybody could hear that it is important that we look after the environment by using renewable energies, recycling…

I was also interviewed by two local newspapers and had the opportunity to explain the reasons why I couldn’t attend the COY and to encourage people to care for the Earth.

IT’S ABOUT TIME WE CARE FOR OUR PLANET, THE EARTH.