Giulio Masasso Paunga, Vice Chancellor of Tonga National University, has called for closer global youth cooperation to address climate change, emphasizing the issue as a crucial global concern that particularly impacts island counties.
Paunga made the remarks at a roundtable held by China Global Television Network (CGTN) in Guangzhou City of south China's Guangdong Province, stating that sharing real-life experiences among global young people is essential to finding long-term climate change solutions.
"One of the things that will be most important is, now that we have the technology, is the sharing of information between our local youth and the international youth. Like over here, you come here to Guangzhou, everything is perfect. From a [Pacific] Island person, growing up and you see the sea every day, all the time, the challenges that we are facing from natural disasters that we are looking at is part of the climate change," said Paunga.
Paunga urged the younger generation worldwide to unite, learn from each other's direct experiences and collaboratively develop solutions.
"If the youth here understand what the youth in the Pacific Islands are facing, and they see that there are potential things that they can learn from each other and perhaps [they're] able to work together on how to bring their ideas together and be able to resolve those issues. They need to get together and learn from each other in a cohesive way, rather than us being taught in the classroom, 'oh, this is climate change'. Every day there are tsunamis. There's rising sea level. There are also others, " he said.
In the face of these challenges, shared knowledge could translate into concrete, collective action, Paunga emphasized.
"And then [in] other countries, they are being taught a different way of the impact of climate change. But I think that knowledge needs to be shared closely at the youth level, in addition to what we from the classroom or the teachers are teaching them. We need something that can bring the youth together. It's a global issue, it needs a global solution," the university official said.
China and Tonga have continually deepened their strategic partnership over the years since establishing diplomatic ties.
President Xi Jinping met with King Tupou VI of Tonga, who is on a state visit to China, on Tuesday in Beijing, where the two leaders witnessed the signing of cooperation documents covering various sectors, including education.
Tongan educator urges closer global youth cooperation
