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Hello everyone and welcome to this episode of the AfriNuke podcast.

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This morning I am joined with Ia Ansut, an interesting nuclear young star as I would

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say or call it because she has really turned an interesting kind of maybe I I would say

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to the look to the people who are really interested in nuclear.

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She is such a very young person from high school and her motivation and drive has brought

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her to this COP27.

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So we are going to have a session with her and she will share with us all around her

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motivation and drive and what has brought her here and what she has gained so far and

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her contribution.

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Maybe a call to action and take home for you.

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So listen up.

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Hello, Ia, it's very nice to meet with you.

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Please can you tell us a bit about you and maybe if I did not get the pronunciation of

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your name very well feel free to correct me.

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Thank you.

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Yeah, so I'm Ia Ansut and I'm 17 years old and I'm here at COP27 with Nuclear for Climate

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and essentially we're here to talk about my journey here.

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Alright, thank you very much.

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You've come all the way from Sweden and you are here in Egypt perhaps your first time

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in this part of Africa.

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I know you have been in Africa before I think you've been in Kenya or something.

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Is that right?

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Yeah, I was in Kenya before.

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Alright, cool.

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So you have the very good experience of Africa and there's a unique thing about your presence

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here that actually struck me the most.

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That's your age and your motivation at that age at the same time.

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So I am way older than you but I still consider myself a youth.

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I think it's more appropriate to call you the Gen Z youth, right?

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So perhaps the category that fits you the most is what is really in vogue right now.

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So and it's a very big challenge.

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So please can you tell us a bit about your journey towards being so pro-nuclear and yeah,

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all the way coming to COP27, please.

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Yeah, so essentially I was active in Farisö Future in my hometown and we were 50 people

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in my town in Farisö Future and only two of us were under the age of 18.

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So it was me and a friend and half a year in to us starting this movement my friend

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gets hospitalized for climate anxiety because all the other people in the movement, these

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48 other people are really, really against all modern solutions like they want everyone

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to live in a forest that's their deal.

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And it was so unrealistic and it was so depressing really that I felt like there needed to be

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a better way.

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So I started researching and I found nuclear power and it solves so many issues at once.

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Like it solves both the climate crisis but it also helps solve energy poverty and the

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global inequality and it's just a good solution.

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That's quite interesting.

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Like I mean finding a solution at such a young age, like I mean the first place is to have

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the motivation to go researching you know.

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Many young lads in your category are very like up and doing like they are very unstable

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I would say if that's the right word they will be more kind of more I mean able to doing

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something maybe into like that will make them either in art or something more actively

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engaging I would say not something as boring as research.

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So it's quite interesting and motivating at the same time to find you go through from

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the forestry group to finding nuclear to be a solution for climate in that regard.

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So coming to COP 27 like how was it for you like what is your motivation what's really

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like was an uppermost in your mind towards coming to COP 27 and do you think you have

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been satisfied so far have you made enough contribution as you expected and are you

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hoping for something like tell us.

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So primarily my motivations to come to COP were two felt like first I really I was just

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really like talking about nuclear power and this is a great opportunity to do it but beyond

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that I also feel like it's really important to have youth voices represented because like

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a lot of the people that are saying they are youth voices are often the people that do

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actually have power they're 30 or even older than that at some time and it's like you are

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already an active part in the political system in a way that kids aren't and I forget that

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puts such a disadvantage I feel like it's really important to have that voice and like

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make it clear and since I live in the global north I have an opportunity that most other

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kids don't to be here and I feel like it's really important for me to take that opportunity

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and do the best with this.

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Alright that's very good you know when you talked about the opportunity being in the

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global north a lot of young stars in the global south and Africa especially may not have or

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even though they have the motivation to come to a place like this they may not have the

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the enablement or the funds kind of to come here but those in the global north are kind

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of enabled somehow but finding motivation and a drive in nuclear it's a bit boring because

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it's kind of I don't know some people think it's too slow or something like that and not

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too adaptable for young people to like or something like that it's not as like shiny

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and glistening as would want to attract the young stars in your category so it's quite

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interesting to see that you found motivation enough to bring you to this place so my kind

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of curiosity is this do you think that you can get more people like you to join your

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like people in your category maybe in your school or something like that maybe that will

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be interested in this kind of idea or motivation you have for nuclear and do you have any plans

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like do you have anything like a school club or group that you want to put together maybe

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to further your maybe your drive in this regard absolutely I think the nuclear power and the

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mission behind that is one of the main steps in solving the climate apathy and the feeling

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of nothing will solve itself and we're screwed but a lot of I feel like a lot of people in

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my generation have and I think nuclear is a really important step in solving that so

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and I'm kind of trying to start a youth group for the Swedish eco modernists but I'm also

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trying to make the youth that I'm already in become pro nuclear that's very interesting

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you know sometimes it makes it doesn't make much sense to go from a new group when there

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is already existing one that can help you propagate your idea so it's quite interesting

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that and they are called eco modernist group you want to form is a very good one to have

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a section of heating your country so yeah keep up in that great job the global population

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is rising and 60% of the population in sub-saharan Africa are youths and they are not just grown

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up youths but really young ones like from age 25 downwards so this kind of gives a very

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good twist and the statistics are in the favor of the young people so when we can catch these

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people young I think it gives a very good impact also propagating a very good solution

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for climate and I would like to kind of maybe hear from you like being in this category

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of people who is the who are they hope for the future like like in the next 20 30 years

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you'll be still very active in your if nothing unfortunate happens and I hope I mean you'll

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be the people that's like the world is looking up to to bring the viable solution to our

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climate so do you have any new idea kind of that you hope if the leaders of thought or

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nations or leaders of organizations maybe hear from you you think they will okay you

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want them to act in a particular way maybe being a young star do you think you have any

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need for them I feel like it's really important that as many people as possible are engaged

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in civil society and that you are active I feel like the cornerstone of democracy is

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functioning organization you can't have a functioning democracy without plenty of people

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that are active in civil society democracy isn't just going to vote every four or five

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years it's about taking an active part in society because you can't it's a part about

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changing society and I feel like that's really important to note that like if you have any

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ability to engage in solving any of the issues you're concerned about that's really important

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because the more people are engaged in anything the more people will get engaged in climate

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change specifically because you can't do any good change without first solving climate

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change I was at the Denmark pavilion yesterday and the leader of the youth for climate group

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for EU she's from Denmark as well I think her name is Nadia or something so she was

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like to get the right solution you don't you need to go beyond public private partnership

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and get into what is called the public private people partnership that's people elements

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need to be included in the whole conversation and the people when you come to talk about

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it that effects the real change in action are the young people and this is a very good

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message for the organizations and those who want to actually bring action to the climate

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drive as a whole to look at the people components and beyond the in addition to the people component

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the young people's component so in my opinion I would say that to get the real needed results

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for the whole climate action the people who are the real focus and should be engaged in

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more and the young people and I'm very very happy that people as young as you are already

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get engaged in this kind of drive and I hope that those in the position of leadership are

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really I mean getting the right word and the right perspective as to how to focus rightly

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to get the good results that is expected so now you're the copies already at its peak

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and after a few days people will be heading back home do you have maybe any specific

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lesson you've learned and maybe any kind of message you want to send to people and maybe

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in Sweden or in Europe or in the global south and can you like any words you think your lessons

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I feel like the most important thing I've learned here is that even the people that

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are causing the harm think they're doing good and I feel that's really important to take

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with you that there is no one or at least very very few people in the world that are

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actively thinking that what they do is bad and they're going to keep doing it and I feel

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that that's really important to take with you when you talk with people even the people

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you view as your enemies they do not view themselves as that and there is so much cooperation

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that can be had and even if they have different priorities than you you have to be able to

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argue so that it looks like it prioritized for their priorities to be on that I think

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engage engage engage engage you have to talk to people you have to be active you have to

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do the work yourself you can't just go around being like the government will fix it because

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the government won't fix it alright alright thank you so much here and it was a very

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informative and exciting time with you like you really challenged me a lot about the youth

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engagement and I hope that our listeners in that category will also be challenged as

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well I hope to have more time with you thank you very much for listening to this episode

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of afrinuk podcast stay tuned for more on this thank you