Let’s make a pledge: to move from bystanders to builders, from consumers to creators, from awareness to impact: Manav Subodh of 1M1B Green Skills Academy

This Independence Day, we’re meeting a new tryst with destiny. 78 years after getting freedom from British rule, this time it’s about climate freedom. Over two‑thirds of Indians are under 35; and that demographic dividend can be our greatest climate asset if we turn awareness into agency and agency into action.

Here’s the shift hiding in plain sight: the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs 2025 finds climate‑change mitigation is now the third‑most transformative trend shaping employers to 2030; “environmental stewardship” has entered the top 10 fastest‑growing skills for the first time; and the decade could create 170 million jobs while displacing 92 million (a net +78 million) if we skill for what’s rising. It is clear that green has become the new normal for hiring and skills.

Youth are uniquely positioned to lead this turn. They bring agility (learn fast, adapt faster), digital fluency (from AI to data), and local empathy (language, culture, and community trust). That mix turns abstract goals into grounded projects.

A sustainable India cannot be a metro-only project. The real work (and the real impact) lies in tier-2, tier-3 towns and villages where climate impacts are most severe. Here, youth can act as bridges between global knowledge and local needs:

• Translating sustainability science into regional languages.
• Localizing climate-tech for specific geographies.
• Building trust within communities to adopt green practices.

If the freedom struggle was about reclaiming our future , the sustainability struggle is about reclaiming our future from climate collapse. On this Independence Day, let’s make a pledge: to move from bystanders to builders, from consumers to creators, from awareness to impact

The government, industry, and civil society must open doors (through internships, fellowships, innovation challenges, and mentorship) so young people can step into leadership roles in India’s green economy. And our youth must walk through those doors with urgency, creativity, and courage.

India’s climate destiny will not be decided in 2050. It will be decided in the next 5-10 years, by the choices our young people make today. Let’s give them the tools, the trust, and the space to lead. Because when the largest youth population in the world decides to go green, there’s no power on earth that can stop it.