reporter: lovely suarez and her neighbors continue to live in fear. not just because of the destructive power of the water they live on now, but also because they could end up in a placace where they'd find it en more difficult to survive. host: climate change will affect the lives of the younger geneneration most t of all. in future, l life on earth is going to be very different toho.

and sosofor manyonths now, hug people have been campaigning for governments to finally get a handle on global warming. throrough the fridays for fufue movevement, school kids have bn taking to the streets every week. so far, peacefully. but as time passes, the calls for more to be done are becoming evever louder. for many young people, it's their first encounter with the force of the law. but protesting is a skill that can be learned. rererter: keeping your cool when a sisituation escacalates can a challengnge. but if y you're going g to taket in a public c demonstratioion,. over 1 1000 young enenvironmel activiststs are learnining hoo prprest peacefully at a camp in kikingershm, frfrance.astern

jules: i would lovove, actuay, spend my days imymy garden about clclimate crisis and ths ju relaxaxg, not wororryin at are h hpening every day, but we arere living in a systm that doeoesn't match my value. reporter: it's all as s authenc at are h hpening every day, but we aas possiblble. a systm the day begigins with thee protestotors exchangining thphe numbers of lawyers in case the get reststed. 2727ear-old raphaelle martin is prorere for t firirst te. thphe her grgroup is plannnning to dit a meeteting of interernational politicicians. everyone has a specific part to pnegotiatators, while o others a surehingngs dot get t ouof control. another group are didics,

helping g anyone who's's come o contact wiwith tear gas.s. that way, if the situation turns fiviolent,hey have evidence.ns raphaelle:e: it's very i import toto me, and i t thi i onlyy realizized here what it meant. it i is not onlywe are good peop s so we a nonon-violent because e we want to be e nic" itit is also a s strategy. because at we want to do is really tcrcreate a mass s movemt and we want, if nonot everybod, but we wanant a large e part of peoplele to agree wiwith us ano realize e how serious s the situation is, and i think th non-viencece is very e efftive tool to chchange the menentali. reporter: ananother skilill practiced in the camp is making posters. the activists get to learn about the power of images and how to use the media and the internet to get their message across. and persuade politicians and society to take action to

protect the environment. jules: the system creates value on the destruction of the earth. it's notot sustainablele, andy dedefinition, a a system that it sustaiainable will c collapsoe day or a another, and,d, actua, thisis day is pretetty close . raphaelle: sometimes it's rdrd fit toto stahopefuful. the more we know aboutut the fututure, the lessss easy it io stay h hopeful, but t i hope o things. the e firsthing g that i hope s that, ifif we cannotot stop completely climate c change, e can limit t it amuch a as possible.. another thing that i i hope is that i hopope for more s solidy around the w world. reporter: one of theain n goal the climate camp inrance is to raiseororale amg yoyoung activivists, to giveve them the sense thatat together ththey're ststrong, and ththey have the r toto make a difffferen.

host: making a difference is a key focus of our "global ideas" series, too. this week we look at renewable energy sources. in future, many manufacturing processes will no longer rely on wind and solar power. our reporter, wolfgang bernert, travelled to arandas in mexico and discovered more about a start-up that's helping other companies harness solar thermal energy. reporter: the lácteos mojica cheese dairy is a family business. every week it produces 40 tons of cheese for the mexican market. and every week, the company uses 40,000 liters of hot water. it has to be at a temperature of least 70 degrees celsius to kill off germs. and to heat it, the cheesemaker uses nearly 100,000 liters of liquid gas. the tanks are kept up on the roof, along with his new solar

technology, which is already saving him money. rigoberto: up to now we were paying 80,000 mexican pesos a month for gas. now it's 30% less. reporter: but the technology itself didn't come cheap. the solar heating facility on the roof measures 120 square meters and cost the equivalent of 75,000 euros. now the water is warmed directly by the sun. but there's still room for improvement, which is why the head of technology at inventive power is here. they manufacture the solar collector. aldo: the bibiggest challenge s toto integrate the heat from te solar collectors into the conventional processes of the factory. normally companies work with steam that's generated using fossil fuels. it's hard to get customers to

realize that they can get the same effect with a solar system as with a conventional boiler. reporter: the company's two founders are not just interested in sales. they're both ambitious engineers whose aim is to improve the dairy's energy efficiency. angel: every proroject is uniq. it t takes time toto optimizee businesses, anand to makake a l difference to the energy consumption and costs. reporter: 550 kilometers to the east is mexico city, home to a population of 20 million. despite the abundant sunshine in this part of the worldld, solr power isn't bibig businesss. angel mejía is on his way to a trade fair, or three, to be precise, all in one place. one of them is intersolar

mexico. mejía is here to look around and check out the competition. and also to rustle up new business. his company, inventive power, has its own stand. angel: one of our main targets to be here at the expo of f coue is that visitors know about our technology. that this type of technology is working now on more than 100 companies in mexico. so we have to convince visitors that this is a real tetechnoloy ththat you can installll right . reporter: but industrial applications for solar thermal technology remain a niche market. marisol oropeza is planning to change that. with support from the german government, she's raising thee profile of solar thermal technology across the country. marisol: yeah, there is a lack of awareness. there are many people who still don't know that you can use

solar energy to heat up water, for instance. many people think you can use solar energy just to get power, get electricity. so, we need to educate people about this other type of application. reporter: the company inventive power was founded in 2010. it's built 60 solar thermal plants, which reduce carbon emissions by 4000 tons a year. the principle is simple. aldo: this is the solar collector which has a parabolic shape. all the energy that catches on the surface is reflected into this receiver. high temperature generates there. so when the water passes inside, the tube absorbs the heat from the sun at a very high temperature. reporter: the collecector has o be precisely posititioned. aldo: yeah, the collector in order to catch most of the energy has to track the sun during the day. to do that, we have the power tracker pro. this is an electronic board that has sensors, peripherals, and

different components to mamake e intelligence of solar tracking of the projects. reporter: the dairy is one of the e company's flagship projec. owner rigoberto mojica is hoping to see a return on his investment within the next five years. the environmental rewards will be immediate. host: chocolate spread, ice cream, cosmetics, fast food, and bio diesel all share one common ingredient -- palm oil. last year's harvest produced 70 million tons of it worldwide. but the growing demand for palm oil is devastating the rainforests. major producers like indonesia and malalaysia have alalreao plant the fruit, at huge cost to biodiversity and the climate. the e.u. is a key importer of palm oil. much of it is added to biofuel. but the e.u. plans to phase this

use out from 2030, much to the annoyance of producers. reporter: every single palm oil fruit is precious. sadiman hariri collects the fruits that have fallen to the ground. as they are especially ripe, he can get more money for them. he owns five hectares of palm oil plantation. sadiman: i know people in europe have a low opinion of palm oil. but there are so many good aspects s at no one e there kns about. the oil is healthy, the trees are strong, and our r work heres a lot more environmentally friendndly than many people realize. reporter: earlier this year, he was shocked by news that the european union had decided to phase out palm oil for use in transport fuel by 2030. he says the timeframe is far too short to grow new replacement plantations.

and he argrgues that thehe eu's prpreferred choioice of soy oror rapeseseed are eveven worse foe environment. sadiman: sure, we can grow soybeans here, but you need five times as much land for the same yield. so it will mean chopping down more forest around the world to make space, and that's exactly what the e.u. doesn't want. reporter: the local village is getting ready for a wedding feast. malaysia has many communities like this one that are heavily dependent on palm oil. like sadiman hariri, the father of the bride is a small-scale farmer. other villagers make their living transporting the fruit, or repairing the harvesters. this bubbling pot of stew simmers with chili and garlic, and palm oil. the chicken has been marinated in palm oil. and the cake that mrs. hariri is serving is baked with, you guessed it, palm oil.

rukiah: it's bad for us if the e.u. stops buying our oil. from the schchool fees for our children to the bill for our daily groceries, selling palm oil helps us to pay for everything. reporter: in malaysia, palm oil is like gold. the country's economy y has flouourished as ththe palm oil plantations have grown. inin kualaumpupur, t majoror players in the industry haves flgathered for a market forum. the subject on everyone's minds here is the e.u. ruling. they blame lobbyists for the decision. datuk: the anti-palm oil lobbies are very, very strong and very focused. one of the problems we face with the anti-palm oil lobby is that these lobbies do not make e an attempt to differentiate palm oil coming from different producer nations. and we have always stated that malaysia does it differently. reporter: the message about palm oil here is very different to that in europe.

>> i love mymy vitamins. >> i lovmy palm oioil. >> i i love my palalm oil. anand so should d you. >> i i love my palalm oil. rereporter: thisis ad was cree with goverernment backing. withth government t backing. the debate i in europe hasas td palm oil into a matter of national pride in malaysia. it's a country fighting to save its palm oil. more than half is produced by large corporations. for years, these have been subject to strict regulations covering minimum wage, labor protection, and environmental standards, all long-recognized by the e.u. malaysia is the world's second largest palm oil producer after indonesia. fruit is constantly being delilivered to thihis mill. ththe kern is s reased f from e pulp and then squeezed out. then the oil goes to the refinery to become food or fuel. on the outskirts of kuala lumpur, lim teck wyn says new houses are going up where there was tropical rainforest just a few years ago.

the conservationist says a unique ecosystem is being destroyed. he and his organization are staging a radical fight for malaysia's rainforests, but even he finds the eu's attitude questionable. lim: unfortunately, palm oil is a fact of life and forests are continuing to be developed. now, the question is whether the e.u., countries within the e.u., will work with groups in malaysia, who are like myself, who are trying to fight to save the forests, or whether the e.u. will just say sorry and disengage and say no. reporter: the government has pledged to keep half of malaysia as rainforest. but lim teck wyn suspects deforestation is proceeding faster than it appears. he says the ban on palm oil won't change that. lim: if the e.u. bans it, it will hurt usus, but it wonon't change the fact that we will are still going to be clearing the forest. and because there are other markets, much bigger markets such as china and india, who are

less discerning and less able to help us, in fact. reporter: meanwhile, farmer sadiman hariri is now making his own compost. he used to use artificial fertilizer, but he's the first farmer in the village who's officially committed to more sustainable production methods. sadiman: we have a lot of problems with mice, they damage the trees. but i don't use any chemicals to get rid of them. i leave that to the snakes. that's a lot better than poison. reporter: that's very much in line with the malaysian government, which wants its 500,000 small-scale farmers to adopt a new approach. sadiman hariri's friends will also have to commit to at least a minimum standard of environmental protection f eversingngle htare o of land. it's'she government's new campaign, , launed i in a

despsperate attempt to persuae the e.u. to ange its mind.nd. >> i am a global teen. host: this week, our global teen comes from peru. gonzalo: my name is gonzalo palomino cruz. i live in ollantaytambo. i have four brothers. we're a big family and we all live here. my mother works in the shop here and my father works in the ministry of culture.

i like to play football most of all. i also like to visit my mother here in the shop or go to our field. that's where we farm the food we eat and keep our animals. i imagine life elsewhere is hard. not everywhere in the world has air as clean as we d dhere. and d not many places in thehe d have such a rich variety of plants and animals as we do. i hope i have a good job. i'd like to become a

professional footballer or a mechanic. i'm worried about climate change. in some places, , water is alrey scararce and more and more natul disasters are happening around the world. itit makes me happy when my fafy gets togetether. i also like to be in a place where there's lots of different kinds of people who all respect each other and where they like to live. most people would never leave here. it's really beautiful, and we mustn't lose that. host: that's all from us this week. thanks for watching. what did you like about the program? let us know, global3000@dw.com. and don't forget you can find us

on facebook too, dw women. see you soon. take care. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content anand accurac. visit ncicap.org]

narrator: on thihis episode of "e"earth fococus," avocadodos he become one of the most popular foods on the planet and exploded into a multibillion-dollar industry. the petorca province in chihile is a hub of wororldwe avocado production, but the growth of the industry has created a crisis over water rights, raising questions about the moral dimensions of how our avocados are grown and consumed.