(December 15, 2023) The COP28 Summit in Dubai saw quite a spectacle unfold on its stage when Indian climate activist Licypriya Kangujam stormed at an ongoing conference with a placard asking to end the use of fossil fuels. The sign read, “End fossil fuels. Save our planet and our future.” She later delivered a short speech before being escorted off the stage. However, her brazenness earned her a round of applause from the audience. Even COP28 Director-General Ambassador Majid Al Suwaidi admired her enthusiasm and encouraged the audience present at the event to give Kangujam another round of applause.
The 12-year-old activist from Manipur soon took to X to share a video and wrote, “They detained me for over 30 minutes after this protest. My only crime- Asking to Phase Out Fossil Fuels, the top cause of climate crisis today. Now they kicked me out of COP28.”
Here is the full video of my protest today disrupting the UN High Level Plenary Session of #COP28UAE. They detained me for over 30 minutes after this protest. My only crime- Asking to Phase Out Fossil Fuels, the top cause of climate crisis today. Now they kicked me out of COP28. pic.twitter.com/ToPIJ3K9zM
— Licypriya Kangujam (@LicypriyaK) December 11, 2023
In another post, she added, “What is the reason to cease my badge for protesting against the fossil fuels? If you’re really standing against the fossil fuels, then you must support me and you must immediately release my badges. This is gross violation and abuse of Child Rights in the UN premises which is against the UN principle. I have the rights to raise my voice at UN.”
Dear Mr @antonioguterres Sir @simonstiell Sir,
What is the reason to cease my @UNFCCC #COP28UAE badge for protesting against the fossil fuels? If you’re really standing against the fossil fuels, then you must support me and you must immediately release my badges. This is gross… pic.twitter.com/NgfT0ElJ5J— Licypriya Kangujam (@LicypriyaK) December 11, 2023
As soon as the COP28 Summit wrapped up, fossil fuels became a central focus. Soon the world leaders adopted Phase Out Fossil Fuel at COP28, however, Licipriya believes this isn’t enough and more needs to be done.
Finally, World leaders adopted to start the beginning of the end of fossil fuels in #COP28UAE. But this is still not enough.
This black era should end now. pic.twitter.com/Ja4GfHuhMU
— Licypriya Kangujam (@LicypriyaK) December 13, 2023
This isn’t the first time that Licypriya has raised her voice against climate crisis. At COP 27 Egypt too, she had an iconic moment when she determinedly questioned UK’s climate minister Zac Goldsmith about the climate activists who were detained in the United Kingdom following protests against environment policies. This sudden confrontation made headlines, and Licypriya was praised for standing up to world leaders and asking pertinent questions.
She might be just 12 but Licypriya has been raising her voice against the climate crisis since she was six. Hailing from Manipur, she saw the devastating effects of cyclones like Fani and Titli in Bhubaneswar at a young age, and this prompted her to take up climate activism. In few years, she has become one of the leading faces in the world of child climate activists.
An activist in the making
Born in the carbon-negative state of Manipur, her relocation to Bhubaneswar triggered her interest in climate change at a young age after she witnessed the destruction caused by two devastating cyclones Titli in 2018 and Fani in 2019, when they hit the eastern coastal region. “Many people lost their lives. Many children lost their parents and many people became homeless,” she said during a TedTalk, adding that she couldn’t sleep or eat for days. This emotion was exacerbated when she moved to Delhi a year later, as her life was completely “messed up” owing to the air pollution and heat wave crisis. All these incidents prompted her to become a child climate activist.
Licypriya Kangujam
She was five when she first heard the terms ‘climate change’ and ‘natural disasters’ while accompanying her dad to raise funds for the Nepal earthquake 2015 victims that made her concerned about the environment. However, she refers to the United Nations Disaster Conference in Mongolia in July 2018 as a “life-changing event” as it made her start her own organisation The Child Movement at the age of six, to call on world leaders to take immediate climate action to save the planet. Over the years, it has become a people’s movement for climate justice in India and abroad. “I travelled to over 32 countries as a part of my movement and spoke in more than 400 institutions on climate change,” she said.
Making a difference, one step at a time
In 2019, she protested outside the Parliament in the capital demanding three things – to pass the climate change law in the parliament as soon as possible, to make climate education compulsory in every school in India, and to ensure plantations of minimum of 10 trees by every student in India. Her efforts yielded result as Gujarat and Rajasthan have made climate change a compulsory subject in the school education curriculum, thus making India the second country after Italy to do so. “Climate education is very important if we really would like to fight the climate crisis. Adults are not doing enough already, and I don’t have much faith in them to come to the frontline and save our planet and future. The last hope is children. If we include climate education in schools, then we can fight climate change from the grassroots,” she told the Harvard International Review.
She has yet again made headlines for taking the COP28 stage by storm. The girl, who likes to swim, paint and watch her favourite cartoon, Doraemon, in her free time, never misses a chance to accept invitations to speak at schools and conferences about climate change. Though she is only 12, she thinks age is just a number. “Many people told me that I’m too young to get involved in such activism, but … I strongly believe that children can lead the change. We need to keep speaking up about the climate crisis and … to hold lawmakers accountable for their political decisions,” she told Washington Post.
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