Licypriya, the new voice of climate change
When she was six years old, Licypriya Kangujam realized the world needed her. It wasn’t a game, nor a childhood fantasy. It was an awakening that led her to become one of the youngest and most courageous voices in the global fight against climate change. Today, at fourteen, this girl from Manipur, in northeastern India, continues to travel the world asking the powerful for one simple but revolutionary thing: act now, before it’s too late. Her story begins in 2018, when she accompanied her father to a United Nations conference on disasters in Mongolia. There, at just seven years old, Licypriya came face to face with the devastating consequences of climate change. She saw the images, heard the stories of destroyed communities and shattered lives. And something inside her shifted. Back in India, she founded the Child Movement, a global movement for climate justice that also embraces the fight against poverty and the defense of children affected by conflict. For her, it’s all connected: the climate crisis is a matter of human rights, social justice, and survival for the most vulnerable.
Growing up in India means confronting air pollution daily. Indian cities are among the most polluted in the world, and thousands die each year from smog-related illnesses. “Our governments are busy blaming each other instead of finding long-term solutions to deadly air pollution. Children in Delhi can’t even go outside. They must act now, or our future will die”, Licypriya warns. At eight, she invented the “Sukifu”, Survival Kit for the Future: a symbolic respirator connected to a transparent backpack filled with plants, built from recycled materials. It doesn’t actually work, but it’s a powerful image. Those photos went viral, shaking the conscience of adults faced with the determined gaze of a child simply asking to breathe.
Since 2018, she has campaigned for stricter anti-pollution laws, but her main mission is to make climate education mandatory in schools. “There is no climate solution without climate education”, she repeats everywhere. How can future generations solve this crisis if we don’t teach them what it is and how to face it? And results are coming: several Indian state governments have introduced climate education into school curricula, proving that the voice of a child can change public policy.
In January 2025, she received the National Youth Day Award in New Delhi. In September, she took the stage at the 80th United Nations General Assembly. A fourteen-year-old girl standing before the world’s leaders: “The climate crisis is already devastating lives, especially those of children. We have no more time”. Her words were both an urgent appeal and a pointed accusation toward the generation of adults who continue to delay crucial decisions.
“I will keep fighting for clean air, clean water, and a clean planet, because these are our fundamental rights. We are unstoppable, another world is possible!” she proclaims with her trademark determination. Licypriya has turned her youth into her strength. She represents a generation that did not choose this crisis but will have to live with its consequences. She keeps traveling, speaking, protesting. She doesn’t tire, she doesn’t give up. She proves that you’re never too young to make a difference.