Vanessa Nakate – Climate Activist

Inspirational leader in Climate Activist Movements

Climate activist from Uganda, Vanessa campaigns internationally to highlight the impacts of climate change already playing out in Africa. Vanessa has appeared at high-level events including the 2019 UN Climate summit in Madrid, and the 2020 World Economic Forum. In 2020, she was named one of the BBC’s 100 Women of the year, as well as one of the 100 most influential young Africans. In 2024 she was named by Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s as “one of the green ones to watch”.

Founder of the Green Schools Project and the Rise Up Movement. See more in the side bar for links. Her Wikipedia page has a lot of information about her work.

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Video Highlights in 10 Minutes

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The Video in Depth with Vanessa Nakate

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The Podcast

The Transcript (In Depth version)

Setting the stage

Vanessa’s personal journey as a climate activist in Uganda

Strikes every Friday

Invited to join Greenpeace delegation

WEF in DAVOS and being cropped out of the photo

The Green Schools Project and its impact on schools in Uganda

Climate problems are not local problems

We are a connected ecosystem

Rise Up, a platform to amplify and share opportunities

Building capacity and mobilizing resources

Climate disasters are the biggest challenges today

Leadership is a service towards the people that you are leading

How can young people get the information and tools they need to make change?

The missing piece is the sense of urgency

Appreciate all the people who walked before me so I could run