By Nneka Nwogwugwu
Young people from around the world were at this week’s global climate summit in Glasgow to advocate for urgent solutions to address the climate change emergency.
One climate activist at COP26 is Elizabeth Wathuti, a 26-year-old from Kenya who founded the Green Generation Initiative, a group that helps young people become environmentally conscious through growing trees. Wathuti spoke in front of COP26 leaders earlier this week and said 2 million of her fellow Kenyans are suffering from climate-related starvation due to drought.
“I have seen with my own eyes three young children crying at the side of a dried-up river after walking 12 miles with their mother to find water,” she said at the conference. “Please open your hearts. This is not only happening in Kenya.”
Wathuti says it’s “painful and heartbreaking” to see people who contributed least to the climate crisis suffer most of the impacts.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta praised Wathuti for her work to highlight the disproportionate impact of climate change on the African people. But Wathuti only feels young climate activists are being heard when the changes discussed at conferences like COP26 get implemented — which isn’t happening, she says.
Young people are carrying the burden of fixing the climate crisis, she says.
On Friday, young activists will take to the streets to put more pressure on negotiations — but she says it’s a shame they have to because leaders selfishly don’t care about how climate change will impact the next generation.