Arya Vedant is a Class IX student of Delhi Public School, Kalinga. He attended the World Summit on Climate Change and Global Warming in Kathmandu, Nepal, on November 8 and 9. He was also a delegate at the international conference on Climate Change and Global Warming held in Mumbai on November 2 and 3.

I feel extremely lucky that I got the chance to attend two climate change conferences, and it opened up new horizons before me.

I had the rare opportunity of meeting several prominent world leaders at both the places. One of the meetings was with the Prime Minister of Mauritius, Anerood Jugnauth, at the international conference in Mumbai.

During our interaction, he told me that climate change is not only bad for the planet, but also for our health and this had been proved by a number of research studies.

It was a great feeling to meet the leaders and talk to them on issues that the world is grappling with these days. The primary topic that we talked about was global warming and how higher temperatures were making the body more sensitive to toxins such as ozone.

At the conference, we discussed how allergies are on the rise in developed countries, which could be, in part, due to rising carbon dioxide levels and temperatures. The conversations not only enhanced my knowledge on several environmental issues but also helped us broaden our knowledge.

I was also present at the world summit in Kathmandu that was attended by 14 students, who represented their respective countries. The feeling of being one of them was great. We were shown the earthquake-affected areas of the country. We have been watching the ruins on TV and newspapers so far, but witnessing them first-hand was a spine-chilling experience.

We were extremely depressed during the visit, but the fact that the people had overcome their miseries and are leading normal lives was quite encouraging. The Prime Minister of Nepal, K.P. Sharma Oli, gifted us statues of Lord Buddha and spoke to us about climate change and how it was affecting Nepal. He told us about the struggles that they had faced during the earthquake and the measures they undertook to regularise the situation afterwards.

We also visited the Rashtrapati Bhavan on an invitation from President of Nepal Bidya Devi Bhandari. She was very worried about the degrading environmental conditions and discussed with us the various ways in which the youth could contribute towards keeping the world safe.

My experiences at both the conferences were memorable and enriching.