“My quest is to be a climate storyteller for the youth and the indigenous communities. By using my platform to tell and highlight more of these indigenous stories so that all these important discussions get to the necessary tables.”

As a youth and a champion for youths, I believe meaningful youth engagement is key to achieving most targets, and this includes the SDGs. While the Youths are among the groups that are on the receiving end of worse climate change effects that they did not contribute to, they are also at the forefront of providing solutions locally for Global Climate challenges. The youth have not had proper chances to sit at decision-making tables when critical decisions are made. I would love to see the youths be part of the design and implementation of various policies in a meaningful and intentional way not just to tick the box, not episodic and symbolic.

With my involvement in community conservancies, I have learned that the indigenous knowledge of communities is not borrowed when designing mitigation and adaptation measures to climate change. Communities should also sit at these tables so that they can share indigenous knowledge that plays a huge role in conservation.