Vanessa Nakate

Vanessa Nakate (born 15 November 1996) is a Ugandan climate justice activist. She grew up in Kampala. She became a celebrity in December 2018 after becoming concerned about the unusually high temperatures in her country.
Early life.
Nakate grew up in the Ugandan capital, Kampala neighborhood. Nakate graduated with a business administration in marketing degree. It was from Makerere University Business School.
Actions for the climate.
She was inspired by Greta Thunberg to start her own climate movement in Uganda. She began a solo strike against inaction on the climate crisis in January 2019. For several months, she was the lone protester outside of the gates of the Parliament of Uganda. Eventually, other youth began to respond to her calls on social media for others. Others helped her to draw attention to the rescue of the Congolian rainforests. Nakate founded the Youth for Future Africa. She also founded the Africa-based Rise Up Movement.
In December 2019, Nakate was one of a handful of youth activists to speak at the in Spain.
In early January 2020, she joined around 20 other youth climate activists from around the world. She published a letter to participants at the World Economic Forum in Davos. She called on companies, banks and governments to immediately stop using fossil fuels. She was one of five international delegates invited by Arctic Basecamp. She camped with them in Davos during the World Economic Forum. The delegates later joined a climate march on the last day of the Forum.
In October 2020, Nakate gave a speech at the Desmond Tutu International Peace Lecture. She asked the world leaders to "wake up" and recognise climate change as a crisis, tying it to poverty, hunger, disease, conflict and violence against women and girls. "Climate change is a nightmare that affects every sector of our lives," she said. "How can we eradicate poverty without looking at this crisis? How can we achieve zero hunger if climate change is leaving millions of people with nothing to eat? We are going to see disaster after disaster, challenge after challenge, suffering after suffering (...) if nothing is done about this." She also called for leaders to “leave their comfort zones and see the danger we are in and do something about it. This is a matter of life and death.”
Nakate started the Green Schools Project. It is a renewable energy initiative. It aims to transition schools in Uganda to solar energy and install eco-friendly stoves in these schools. As of now, the project has carried out installations in six schools.
On 9 July 2020, Vanessa Nakate was interviewed by Angelina Jolie hosted by Time magazine. It was about the power and importance of African voices in the climate justice movement. In August, Jeune Afrique magazine named her among the "Top 100 most influential Africans". In August 2020, Vanessa Nakate joined former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the Forum Alpbach to discuss climate activism.
In September, Vanessa spoke on a panel entitled “Sparking an Era of Transformational Climate Leadership”. It was for the World Resources Institute. She talked of her perspective in “Conversations with Climate Changers” for Oxfam. Vanessa Nakate was announced by the United Nations as the . Nakate was shown among OkayAfrica's 100 Women. It is an exclusive platform to pay respect to 100 women of excellence among the diaspora during Women's History Month. Nakate was mentioned among the most influential young Africans in 2020 by YouthLead.
Nakate was a keynote speaker at the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue 2021 on 16 March 2021. Her speeches included criticism of the as organizers for screening the input from youth climate activists. It was not applied to other invited speakers.
She was writing in "The Guardian" in October 2021. She argues that the countries and corporations largely responsible for greenhouse emissions should compensate African countries and communities for the loss and damage arising from climate change that they are now suffering.
In a 2019 interview with Amy Goodman for "Democracy Now!", Nakate expressed her motivation for : "My country heavily depends on agriculture, therefore most of the people depend on agriculture. So, if our farms are destroyed by floods, if the farms are destroyed by droughts and crop production is less, that means that the price of food is going to go high. So it will only be the most privileged who will be able to buy food. And they are the biggest emitters in our countries, the ones who will be able to survive the crisis of food, whereas most of the people who live in villages and rural communities, they have trouble getting food because of the high prices. And this leads to starvation and death. Literally, in my county, a lack of rain means starvation and death for the less privileged".
Awards.
Nakate was given the Haub law environmental 2021 Award. It was in recognition of her citizen diplomacy in bringing the voice of her generation to global environmental campaigns. She was recognised for her inspiring climate activism in Uganda and beyond.
Vanessa Nakate was honoured by 2020 Young Activists Summit During a Live Discussion on Post-COVID-19 World.
Nakate was on the list of the BBC's announced on 23 November 2020.
She was also on the list Time100 Next published by "TIME" magazine on 17 February 2021, She is shown on the cover of
"TIME's" November 8/November 15, 2021 issue.