A young person from Whitehorse will be on Canada’s Environment and Climate Change Youth Council for the next two years.

Pearl Pique Carpina is the sole member from the northern territories among a dozen youth from across the country who will make up the second cohort of the council. They were named earlier this month.

The federal government says the council provides advice on issues about the environment, nature and climate that is used to inform its decision-making.

Carpina said a focus on the environment was instilled in her from a young age in the Philippines. She said growing up on a family rice farm along with all the farm animals is what started her connection to the land.

She’s now a graduate of the northern environmental and conservation sciences program at Yukon University, and has had a chance to learn about the environment in places like Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Sweden, France, Norway and Iceland.

Carpina has worked with the Yukon Research Centre as well as the Yukon government on climate change, permafrost, and land-use projects and is now an assessment officer with the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board.

She says she’s curious about how decisions are made.

“What’s the environmental lens in political decision making and how is science being applied?”

Carpina said her goal is to bring the power of science and truth alongside the wisdom of traditional knowledge to the conversations – traditional knowledge from her childhood as well as from the Yukon.

Emily Ross, a Yukoner who was part of the inaugural cohort of the council from 2022 to 2024, said being part of the council was an incredible experience.

“I was really grateful to be part of a group … that was so committed to systems change and challenging the status quo, even where that was sometimes met with resistance and bureaucratic barriers.”

Emily Ross, in the foreground wearing a striped shirt, in Montreal with the Environment and Climate Change Youth Council. Ross said this photo is from when the group was preparing to meet with former prime minister Justin Trudeau and Steven Guilbeault, who was Trudeau’s environment minister at the time. (Submitted by Emily Ross)

Ross said despite the very real limitations of the group, there were moments where the council members were able to reflect the urgency they were feeling in their communities.

Now that the federal election has been called, Ross said the new cohort is also starting out in a fascinating moment.

She said political transitions like an election can bring uncertainty when trying to do long-term work on climate action and transforming systems.

“It also highlights why the youth council matters because regardless of who is in power, youth perspectives and lived experiences need to be centred in climate decision making.”