LOS ANGELES (CNS) —The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has voted to create a Youth Climate Commission.
Supervisors Hilda Solis and Sheila Kuehl co-authored the motion to establish a 25-member commission with five seats granted to residents of each supervisorial district.
“Young people, especially young people of color, bear the brunt (of the climate crisis),” Solis said. “We must assure that they have a seat at the table.”
More than 2 million Los Angeles County residents are under the age of 18 and Solis pointed out that many teens are already mobilizing to demand action on climate change.
Kuehl quoted Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teen who recently blasted United Nations members for their inaction on climate change, saying ‘our house is on fire.”
Several students offered their support for the motion.
“Let students, who have the most to lose, help to address the largest crisis facing humanity,” a student from the Marlborough School in Hancock Park urged the board.
The board directed the county’s chief sustainability officer to report back in 60 days on the steps to set up a commission that is representative of the geographic and socioeconomic diversity of the region.
The scope of the commission’s work was not addressed in the motion.