SACRAMENTO, Calif.: A 14-year-old girl is calling on Sacramento County leaders to take more decisive action on climate change.

Supriya Patel, of Sacramento, unfurled a banner in front of the county administration building in downtown Sacramento on Friday, asking the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors to declare a climate emergency and commit to zero carbon emissions by 2030.

"We are out here asking the county to declare a climate emergency because their current action on the climate crisis has been widely insufficient,” Patel said.

Sacramento County has taken steps to curb climate change, but according to Patel, they haven’t been strong or effective enough.

“Under what is arguably their boldest piece of climate legislation, which is their climate action plan, emissions have only risen," Patel said. "So, we’re really not seeing a lot of progress here."

Patel became passionate about the climate crisis during a trip to India when she was just 10 years old.

“When I was there, I was just struck by the sheer amount of pollution. Because I have asthma, I found it really hard to breathe. I had asthma attacks when I was inside. I just couldn’t believe that people had to live like this,” Patel said.

In 2018, the Camp Fire broke out in Butte County. Though the fire was burning two hours away from Sacramento, heavy smoke drifted into the city. Patel said, for the first time, she felt the true impacts of climate change in her own backyard.

“I really realized the climate crisis could impact me here in California," Patel said. "It wasn’t just a problem the global south was facing."

Since then, Patel has founded the Sacramento chapter of Fridays for Future, an international climate change movement inspired by 17-year-old Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg. In September of last year, she organized a large climate rally at the State Capitol that hundreds attended.

Patel’s mother is an epidemiologist. She made sure the participants at Friday’s rally were socially distanced and wearing masks. She placed shoes on the ground with signs in them to represent all of the people who wanted to be at the event, but chose to stay home to protect themselves and their families from COVID-19.