Who is Licypriya Kangujam, the 12-year-old Indian activist who protested at COP28?

From organising the “Health Day” to hosting “ministerial dialogue on building water resilient food systems,” COP28 climate summit in Dubai has its many firsts.As several countries clashed over a possible agreement to phase out fossil fuels at the crucial summit, a young climate justice activist stormed on to the stage, holding a sign above her head that read, “End fossil fuels. Save our planet and our future."Licyriya Kangujam was later escorted away as the audience clapped, as per Reuters.Here’s all we know about the young climate activist.Who is Licypriya Kangujam?Born on 2 October 2011, Licypriya Kangujam is a 12-year-old climate activist from north-eastern state of Manipur.According to BBC, she was quite young when she accompanied her father on fundraising events for victims of a deadly earthquake in Nepal in 2015. However, she felt the urge to become an activist only after attending a UN disaster conference in Mongolia with her father in 2018.She is the founder of The Child Movement that aims to raise awareness “to protect the planet by tackling climate change and natural disasters.”The teenager has been campaigning in India for past six years for new laws to curb high pollution levels and to make climate change literacy mandatory in schools, as per a bio on her website.[caption id="attachment_13493172" align="alignnone" width="640"]

Licypriya Kangujam protests against the use of fossil fuels during an event at the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit. AP[/caption]As per BBC, Kangujam has even designed “a survival kit for the future,” called Sukifu device, to highlight the need to curb worsening air pollution in the country.While speaking to the British outlet in 2020, her inspiration to continue fighting for government action to tackle climate change comes from rescuers who help victims from “danger.” However, she also feels that leaders in the country need to stop dispelling the activists’ messages.“They are not taking any action, I want all leaders to do more – otherwise our future will die soon. They must act now, to save our planet and our future.”When compared to Greta Thunberg, whose Fridays for Future school strike became world famous, Licypriya, she tells BBC while they have much in common, “I have my own identity, story.”“I already began a movement to fight climate change before Greta started,” she said, adding that the two are “good friends” who “respect each other.”The two have attended the UN climate change conference, also known as COP25, in the Spanish capital Madrid in December 2019.Protest and detention at COP28 summitThe young climate justice activist, after storming on to the stage, delivered a short speech while protesting against the use of fossil fuels.“End fossil fuels. Save our planet and our future,” she protested.COP28 Director-General Ambassador Majid Al Suwaidi said he admired the enthusiasm of young people at the summit and encouraged the audience to give Kangujam another round of applause.Later in the day, taking to X, the activist revealed that she was detained for over 30 minutes after her protest.“Here is the full video of my protest today disrupting the UN High Level Plenary Session of #COP28UAE. They detained me for over 30 minutes after this protest. My only crime – Asking to Phase Out Fossil Fuels, the top cause of climate crisis today. Now they kicked me out of COP28.”

In another post she wrote, "What is the reason to cease my badge for protesting against the fossil fuels? If you're really standing against the fossil fuels, then you must support me and you must immediately release my badges. This is gross violation and abuse of Child Rights in the UN premises which is against the UN principle. I have the rights to raise my voice at UN.”"This is an attempt to silence my voice. You can stop me from entering #COP28UAE but you can't stop my spirit. Trust me, I will come back stronger than before," she added.Public protests have been limited at the UN talks that are being held in the United Arab Emirates, which bans many organised groups, including political parties and labour unions.She added, “Governments must work together to phase out coal, oil and gas – the top cause of the climate crisis today. 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.”“I am child who is completely frustrated by today’s climate crisis. We are the first line of victims. I feel the core issues of phasing out fossil fuels are keeping in side in the negotiations process going on in the COP28 with over 2500 fossil fuel lobbyists.”Latest developments at COP28Countries on Monday received a new draft text of a final deal. The text did not refer directly to a phase out of fossil fuels, which is a key demand of the European Union and many developing countries that are especially vulnerable to climate change, according to Reuters.The draft has set the stage for contentious last-minute negotiations in the two-week summit in Dubai, which has laid bare deep international divisions over whether oil, gas and coal should have a place in a climate-friendly future.The talks are scheduled to finish on Tuesday, but U.N. climate talks have rarely finished on time.