Young Activists- Licypriya Kangujam

 The youth is an integral part of the climate movement and it is clear that small hands can lead to big activism. Climate change activist Licypriya Kangujam is a great example of this. Licypriya grew up in India and was impacted by the effects of cyclones in her childhood, and she began her work advocating for action towards the climate crisis at the age of six. Throughout her time as an activist Licypriya has been able to get her voice across through multiple nations. She did this by attending conferences, participating in talks, and educating individuals further on the reality of the climate crisis. Now thirteen years old, Licypriya has become a young leader in the climate movement who has received various awards and recognition for her activism.

At COP28, the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2023 which was hosted in Dubai Licypriya interrupted a panel discussion in order to display her poster which stated ‘End fossil fuel. Save our planet and our future.’ Licypriya walked across the stage chanting to end fossil fuels and to “stop oil and gas.” Despite the fact that Licypriyas’s demonstration at COP28 only lasted about a minute she was given applause immediately upon her exit while being escorted offstage by the security. Further, the panel member leading the discussion at the time Licypriya intervened directed another round of applause for her once the conference reconvened stating those attending were “very proud of the enthusiasm of the young people who have joined us at COP28.”

Licypriya has done many great things with her platform as a climate activist, but one of her most notable and most recent projects was her market booth which accepted plastic waste as a form of payment. Licypriya’s drive behind creating this booth was to reduce the usage of single-use plastic, she stated in her interview with The National “Bring me plastic you will use only once and in return I will give you something you can use many times.” Licypriya's booth offered a variety of items that could be exchanged such as plants, food items, and school supplies which could all be traded in for different amounts of plastic waste.

In addition to collecting this waste in order to keep it out of our bodies of water, Licypriya later turns it in to be made into building materials that are either donated or sold to keep her booth stocked and running. This booth was not restricted to a single community either. Licypriya chose to travel around with her booth and allowed a variety of individuals access to turn in their plastic waste for something useful before it ended up in one of our oceans. Not only has Licypriya's booth encouraged individuals to be mindful of how they dispose of their plastic waste but she states that by traveling with this booth she has received contact from other children wondering how they could start similar booths.