DUBAI: The 12-year-old Indian tribal climate activist Licypriya Kangujam, who staged a dramatic protest disrupting the United National Climate Change Conference (COP28) high-level meet, said she did it spontaneously out of frustration over the lack of political will to phase out fossil fuels.
Kangujam had abruptly ran onto the podium of a high-level meet late on Monday evening and gave a piece of her mind to the packed audience, which included delegates from multiple countries.
"Leaders lie, people die...act now...," she shouted, receiving loud applause. She was quickly escorted by the UN security. While Ambassador Majid Al Suwaidi, who was holding the high-level meet, asked the audience to give her another round of applause saying he was proud of all young people who joined at the COP28, it was later learnt that Kangujam's delegate badge was stripped and her entry was blocked on Tuesday.
In an interview with TNIE, the young Meitei girl said UN officials took away her badges and threatened to blacklist her from all future COPs.
"I was warned, asked to behave properly. My badges were taken away. This is a gross violation of child rights. I was just expressing the voice of those children who are victims of climate change. If we keep burning fossil fuels, it will kill millions of people," she said standing outside the entry gate.
Kangujam first attended the COP in 2015 in Spain and, at COP28, she was attending as a Special Envoy of Timor Leste.
The girl's mother Kangujam Onjbi told TNIE she was worried about her daughter, when officials refused to give any update after she was evicted from the podium. "It was after 30-40 minutes that I met her. My badges were also taken away."
On what prompted her to become a climate activist, the young girl said she grew up in Manipur, Odisha and now in New Delhi. All these three places had their own share of climate change issues. "As a child, I saw rich biodiversity vanish in Manipur, experienced back to back devastating cyclonic storms 'Titli' in 2019 and 'Fani' in 2019. In Delhi, we see severe pollution during winter and heat waves in summer. My teachers told me this was climate change and wanted to do something about it. I founded the 'Child Movement' after that and started to get invited for conferences."
Kangujam started campaigning from the age of six and every Friday, she stages a demonstration before Parliament calling for the phasing out of fossil fuels.
While both mother and daughter have urged the UN to return their badges, there is no response yet.
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