Photo Credit: The Winsor School
Climate activist Vanessa Nakate is a “megaphone” for the passionate people working to combat the climate crisis and for those most affected by its consequences.
The Washington Post spotlighted Nakate’s meaningful work, which brings attention to climate issues and the people in power who aren’t fulfilling their promises. She’s a UNICEF goodwill ambassador, co-director of the Tard Foundation and Vash Green Schools Project, graduate student at Britain’s University of Oxford studying public policy, and author.
Her journey to climate activism began when hunger and poverty in her home city of Kampala, Uganda, worsened due to crop failures. At just 22 years old, she began striking outside of Uganda’s parliament by herself.
She aims to highlight how places like Africa are disproportionately impacted by climate change, despite developed countries contributing the most harmful pollution. Her book, “A Bigger Picture: My Fight to Bring a New African Voice to the Climate Crisis,” highlights this unjust situation.
She told the Washington Post, “We are facing the same storm but we are in different boats.”
This year, she, along with many other climate activists, did not attend the 29th U.N. Climate Change Conference in protest. The attending nations signed a nonbinding agreement to give $300 billion to vulnerable countries suffering due to the effects of climate change — a far cry from the $1.3 trillion needed. It’s a prime example of what Nakate wants to call attention to.
Nakate currently travels around the world meeting young people impacted by the climate crisis and runs the Vash Green Schools Project, which installs clean cooking stoves and solar panels. So far, the program has upgraded the appliances in 75 schools throughout rural Uganda.
In 2023, former vice president Al Gore interviewed Nakate and later said of her, “She not only uplifts the voices of those on the frontlines of the climate crisis, but becomes a megaphone for them,” according to the Washington Post.
Nakate’s efforts to further the use of renewable energy and eco-friendly appliances help reduce pollution. But her relentless mission to hold leading nations accountable for their role in climate change is what defines her activism. She forces people to acknowledge the injustices inflicted upon poorer nations because wealthy nations are not doing their part to reduce emissions and create a cooler, cleaner future.
Kitty van der Heijden, UNICEF’s deputy executive director of partnerships, said, “Vanessa is a leader among leaders. Few have been better at bringing the lived realities of climate change to the halls of power at the global level,” according to the Post.
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