The other day, I opened Instagram to doomscroll after a hectic schedule. Instead, I ended up watching a video about renewable energy with the hashtag #RenewableEnergyChai. I felt weirdly inspired seeing that the video was created by someone of my age, but then, like any responsible adult on Instagram, I kept scrolling.

Then it happened again. Another video with that same hashtag. And again. Over the past few days, so many similar posts landed in front of my eyes that ignoring them became impossible. But here’s the thing: my algorithm is deeply ingrained with brainrot. It knows exactly what I like, and it barely shows me anything useful on purpose. So if it is serving me something this good more than twice, there has to be a buzz out there on the socials.

I went looking, and I was right. People are talking about renewable energy, and these are actual, voluntary, nobody-forced-them talks.

I wanted to know who was working behind the hashtag and how it grew so fast, so I sat down with Fatema Nur Jarin from Youth for NDCs, the organisation that made youth talk about something as serious as the transition to renewable energy and successfully made it a trend.

It started with one idea

The campaign was started by Youth for NDCs, and the thinking behind it was refreshingly simple. They wanted to show people that it is not impossible for the government to move towards renewable energy. It is not even that hard. Instead of another report or press conference, they chose to say it in the place where young people already spend most of their day: in front of their phones.

The campaign ran in three cohorts. The first and second had around 30 people each. By the third, so many people had applied that they had to accept around 60. Every member made videos, used the hashtag and posted them on their own feeds.

What happened next was bigger than the cohorts. People who were never part of any cohort began making videos too. Ms Jarin says a lot of the engagement is organic, coming from people nobody asked to take part. Altogether, the videos have crossed 7 million views.

If you sit back and think about it, making a generation who are addicted to Instagram brainrot reels (like me) take out their phones and talk about renewable energy is a massive success. Not because of the number of views, but because of what the hashtag actually means. When someone makes a video saying they want renewable energy and uses the hashtag, it encourages other young people to want it too. For their own future. For their country.

The success lies in making this serious topic a buzz on the internet that can wake people up and make youths believe that if a person their age can ask for renewable energy, they can too. Implementation and reaching the right people are important, but believing that we can ask for it in the first place is a lot more important. Youth for NDCs made people believe that we can ask for renewable energy. It’s our right.

Why they wanted it to trend

The buzz was not an accident. The team wanted the hashtag to trend on purpose, because they understand how the internet works. When something keeps appearing on our feeds, we slowly start to believe it. It stops feeling like a distant, complicated idea and starts feeling normal, and then possible.

That was exactly what they were after. They wanted people to see that renewable energy does not need an absurd amount of money or extreme effort. A few well-known influencers, including Rakin Absar and Mamunur Rashid, also joined in and made videos, which pushed the hashtag to even more people.

I can honestly say it worked, because it worked on me. I watched one video by accident and ended up researching the whole thing. And now, I want renewable energy too.

Then they went offline

The offline part of the campaign is the university activation programme, and it takes everything off the screen and into real life. The team is visiting eight of the top universities in Bangladesh, and some visits are already done. UIU and BUP have been covered, and AIUB is next.

The visits follow the same plan every time, where the team talks to the students about renewable energy and why it matters. They teach them, enlighten them and do what they are so good at doing: making people believe that renewable energy is askable. They bring props for the students to make videos with them and post them using the hashtag.

Finally, the most interesting part: the students sign an “Uttoriyo” saying they want Bangladesh to move to renewable energy. The team plans to take all these pledges and requests for renewable energy in the uttoriyo and give them to the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources (MoPEMR) and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) as a way of presenting what all these youths across these universities want: renewable energy.

So the online and offline sides feed each other. Students learn something at the event, make a video before they leave, and the hashtag carries it to people who were never in the room. The videos from just the UIU visit have already crossed 250K views.

I asked Ms Jarin about the challenges, and the answer was not what I expected. Problems like people being camera-shy were hardly an issue. The application process for the cohorts was thorough, so the people who joined were already comfortable in front of the camera.

The real challenge was fear. People hesitate to talk about anything related to the government online. Even in front of the camera, they stop and wonder: can I say this out loud? Is it too much? Is it too direct? That hesitation is still there, and it is something the campaign had to work around.

The biggest change

When I asked Ms Jarin what the campaign has achieved, she said the biggest thing is that people now believe renewable energy is possible. When an idea stays on the internet for long enough and becomes a trend, people start to believe in it, and that belief is a big win on its own.

Personally, she takes one thing away from all of this. Renewable energy is very important, and the transition does not need tremendous effort. It is still possible, as long as the government wants it.

A hashtag cannot change a policy by itself. Nobody is pretending it can, including the people behind it. But policies don’t move until enough people decide they’re worth asking for, and that is the part #RenewableEnergyChai is working on.

I came here to scroll past something rubbish. Instead, I watched my own generation stand up and ask for its own future. The pledges are signed. The uttoriyo is getting filled with voices of youth. The only question left is who’s listening.

And lastly, #RenewableEnergyChai.