A new generation of climate activists wants to give a voice to those who have no voice

This is the case of 23-year-old Mexican activist Shurabi Mercado. Nearly a decade ago, the young woman began working on this issue, mainly because of the poor air quality in Toluca, the city where she was born and raised. Today, it seeks to condemn “climate injustice” and criticizes the use of fossil fuels as the main source of Mexico’s energy matrix.

Growing up in this reality was like my awakening. I understood that it was not just an environmental crisis, but also a social and economic crisis. Therefore, I started the fight for a just transition – says Shourabi, who understands youth climate action not as the “future”, but as the “present”. — We build solutions rooted in our history and our regions.

The question of survival

The desire to combat social inequality also motivated cultural producer Marcelie Oliveira, 26, from Rio. She was selected by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to be a Youth Climate Ambassador at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30).

The young woman encountered environmental problems while fighting for a garden in Realengo, in the northern region of Rio. Today she is part of the Climate Change Alliance, which seeks to mobilize efforts to combat floods, and works for Perivalab, which runs the Young Climate Negotiators program in partnership with the Environment Secretariat of Rio’s capital.

— When you become an activist, you never stop caring about all forms of injustice and inequality in everyday life. I will remain in this youth coordination role until COP31, but with a close eye on the issue of culture, black women and the inclusion of children and young people with disabilities in environmental agendas.

For Gabi Brasilia, activist at the Arrayara International Institute, “youth concern and engagement in the socio-environmental struggle is a matter of survival”:

— We are the ones who cannot live out our youth because we live with the worry that new floods, droughts or epidemics caused by environmental devastation could disrupt all life’s plans. We need to be heard and included in the climate policy process.

At the age of 11, Mateus Fernández survived a police operation inside his school in Guarulhos, when he realized that it was impossible to normalize the racist violence that characterized the society in which he lived. Upon returning home, the feeling of “revolution” made him look at inequality and raised questions such as why green does not reach the suburbs.

— I became a climate activist out of urgency and necessity. Because of the discomfort of understanding that I, as a Black person, my family and I were exposed to violence that was not just an incident, but a structure. Why, I asked, do our neighborhoods have so few trees, so few parks, and so little shade? Why have our landscapes always been made of hot concrete, open sewers, and a lack of rights?

Today, at the age of 25, the young man devotes himself to the InfoPerifa project he founded. The initiative works for popular environmental education and combating misinformation from Brazilian favelas.

12-year-old boy Miguel Lourenco also took his DNA from environmental activists to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30). He was part of the delegation of the Crias do Tijolinho Institute, founded in 2019 by activist Camila Camilo, which brings together minors living in Complexo da Mare, in the northern region of Rio de Janeiro.

Lourenço developed climate activism based on his graffiti, photography and design skills. During COP30, he was able to share what routine is like for a child living in a community facing the consequences of the climate crisis, as well as proposing solutions based on the reality in which he lives.

– Children need to have a voice. We are now – says the boy.

26-year-old Grace Vijnasana was born in India and raised in Australia. Through family members’ accounts, I learned how changing environmental conditions affected agriculture on the farm and learned about climate displacement by seeing indigenous communities forced off their lands due to desertification and mining.