“World leaders must show they care about people’s lives“. The sentence seems simple, and at the same time, it couldn’t be more pragmatic, more realistic, more mature. Elizabeth Wathuti, a 27-year-old Kenyan environmentalist, wants to convince those who have the power to use it to preserve what can still be. On this planet where those who pollute the least pay the highest price in terms of climate catastrophe, she pleads as the UN Secretary General said yesterday that we “choose solidarity” rather than collective suicide. And Liz Wathuti did not wait for COP27 to say so.
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Born at the foot of Mount Kenya, in a forest region, she planted her first tree at the age of 7, created an environmental club for college students at 12, founded her reforestation association Green Generation at 20. And last year, at the COP 26 in Scotland, his speech silenced the room full of heads of state: “I thought long and hard about the words that can move youshe had launched, but I think you can only be affected if you open your hearts (…) it is you alone who have the will to act.”
Her speech was seen millions of times, she was named one of the magazine’s most influential people Time, the UN named her Youth Champion. But that’s not exactly what she wanted. Liz Wathuti wanted action, and she is desperate to see climate justice promises not being kept. According to a report published Tuesday, November 8, 2,000 billion dollars per year are needed to help emerging countries, but the 100 billion that rich countries had pledged to pay each year are still not there.
Yet the urgency is known. Liz Wathuti featured in The Independent Kenya’s endless drought, farmers’ seedlings failing to grow, livestock dying for lack of pasture, carcasses littering the roads, hunger afflicting 50 million people in the Horn of Africa. She also says that beyond repairs, the real challenge will be to project into the future, not just to see the damage once a year but to work to restore, regenerate the land, “North and South must join hands“.