I'm a child frustrated by climate crisis: 12-yr-old Indian activist Licypriya storms COP28

Licypriya Kangujam, who is a well-known child rights activist from India, is seen in a video holding a banner at a COP28 session calling for ending fossil fuels and protesting about leaders not doing enough to fight against the climate crisis, being escorted away by security staff. As she was ushered out of the stage, the audience spontaneously started to clap.

Later, she posted a video on her disrupting the UN high-level plenary session of COP28, and wrote in the accompanying text that after her protest she was detained for over 30 minutes.

Phase out fossil fuels

“My only crime, I was asking to phase out fossil fuels, the top cause of climate crisis today. Now they kicked me out of COP28,” she said.

In another post, she addressed governments: “Your action today will decide our future tomorrow. We are already the victim of climate change. I don’t want my future generations to face the same consequences again. Sacrificing the lives of the millions of innocent children for the failures of our leaders is unacceptable at any cost. Millions of children like me are losing their lives, losing their parents and losing their homes due to climate disasters. This is real climate emergency. Instead of spending billions of dollars in wars, spend it on ending hunger, giving education and fighting climate change.”

And added, “We want clean air to breathe, clean water to drink and clean planet to live. Asking clean air to breathe, clean water to drink and clean planet to live is our basic rights.”

"I'm a child who is completely frustrated by today's climate crisis. We are the first line of victims," she said, adding that the core issue of fossil fuels is being sidelined during the negotiation process at the summit due to the presence of 2,500 fossil fuel lobbyists.

COP28 draft text

Interestingly, a new draft text of a final deal was circulated among the country representatives at COP28 and the text did not directly refer to a phase out of fossil fuels, which is a key demand of the European Union and many developing countries especially vulnerable to climate change, reported Reuters. This text is bound to spark off more contentious discussions at the summit, whose participants seem deeply divided about the role of oil, coal and gas in the future.

So, who is Licypriya Kangujam?

Story of a child climate activist

Licypriya Kangujam, a climate activist from Manipur has been championing the cause of the environment since she was six-years-old.

According to the BBC, she became conscious about the need to protect the environment when she accompanied her father on fundraising events for victims of a deadly earthquake in Nepal in 2015. However, she became an activist only after attending a UN disaster conference in Mongolia with her father in 2018. She calls it a "life-changing event" on her website.

On June 21, 2019 inspired by the climate activist Great Thungberg, though she prefers not to be referred to as the Indian Thunberg, since she has her "own story", Licypriya started spending a week outside the Indian Parliament to draw the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to pass a climate change law in India.

In fact, for the past four to five years, she has been campaigning for climate action in India to pass new laws to curb India’s high pollution levels and to make climate change literacy mandatory in schools.

She soon founded The Child Movement that aims to raise awareness “to protect the planet by tackling climate change and natural disasters”.

Licypriya is known as one of the youngest climate activists globally and has even addressed world leaders in the United Nations Climate Conference 2019 (COP25) in Madrid, Spain. Here she urged world leaders to take immediate climate actions to save their future.

This summit was also attended by Greta Thunberg, the internationally known Swedish climate rights activist, who Licypriya calls her good friend and claims they respect each other.

According to her website, Licypriya donated ₹100,000 to the Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan on August 24, 2018 to help children who were victims of the flood in the state. And, on October 21, 2019, Licypriya led a march from India Gate to Parliament House in New Delhi with her supporters to request immediate action on climate change and to enact the climate change law in India.

The next year in October, Licypriya spent a night protesting alone in front of the President House near Vijay Chowk to find a permanent solution on Delhi air pollution crisis. She was briefly detained by Delhi Police when she was protesting at Jantar Mantar on October 18, 2020 and later released.

She has given many TEDx talks and also won many awards, including the International Women’s Day Award 2021 from the Delhi government.

Licypriya claims that she has even created a symbolic device called SUKIFU (Survival Kit for the Future) to curb air pollution. SUKIFU is an almost zero budget kit designed from trash to provide fresh air to breathe when pollution is bad. This wearable plant is a recognition of the Green Movement for air pollution.