Simmone Ahiaku
global youth
fighting for change
Dear Matafele Peinem is a call to act. It asks us to visualise the world that is being passed on to our children and dares us to fight for the best possible future. The poem perfectly situates the youth climate justice movement we see today — one full of fearlessness, radical imagination and the determination to always push for more.
We now have millions of young people across the world mobilising for climate justice because we know a better world is out there, and we need to be active shapers of our future. Systemic change is within our reach.
Tuvalu’s fight to stay above water
Youth movements rise out of necessity, when the failing systems drive younger generations to question their future prospects and organise to demand better. In 2014, the UN Climate Change and Migration Issues in the Pacific report declared that if sea levels continue to rise at the current rate Tuvalu, a nation of some 12,000 people, will become uninhabitable by 2050 , rendering it one of the first nation states to disappear due to climate change. Saving Tuvalu aim to become the largest youth-led non-governmental organisation to address the environmental and humanitarian issues taking place in Tuvalu. Kato Ewekia,
Saving Tuvalu’s global campaign director, has been involved since early 2020 when the organisation reached out to Tuvaluans who had had first hand contact with the crisis for their ‘Saving Tuvalu Global Campaign’. Having surveyed their work, Kato was excited by the group’s recognition of “the role of interdependence in tackling global issues.” For the 4th smallest nation in the world, partnering with larger allies to amplify their struggle is crucial.
Currently, Saving Tuvalu divide their efforts between two campaigns. An international one — managed by Kato — which is made up of young people, from all ethnicities, backgrounds, and regions around the world, who seek to amplify the voices of the community in Tuvalu. Then, there is the national one, bringing together Tuvaluan citizens and political actors — which develops actionable projects to improve quality of life indexes, as well as raising the nation’s voice around climate injustice. Their Instagram page offers visual explainers about their work and facts about Tuvalu.
Kato believes that the movement to save Tuvalu has to be youth led. “Particularly in the case of Tuvalu, the youth may be the last demographic that lives to see its country beyond the sea. Therefore, its voices must be heard and amplified to, at one point, save Tuvalu from extinction.”
He recently worked on a campaign with Fridays for Future on social media to amplify their cause and further their calls to increase international aid given to Tuvalu to tackle climate change issues such as drinking-water storage and soil infertility due to salinisation from sea flooding. In a world that abides by climate justice principles, we must acknowledge that wealthy nations are far more responsible for the climate crisis than places like Tuvalu. 66% of emissions between 1751 and 2017 came from the US, the EU, Russia and China - a total of 1053bn tonnes! Many of the wealthiest people in these countries live in cities which are sheltered from the worst effects of climate change, meaning that they don’t feel its affects as keenly. These nations therefore have a responsibility to eliminate fossil fuel use and fund projects to save at-risk nations from the damage their excessive consumption has caused.
For Kato, his vision of a world that adopts climate justice principles is one where “all individuals, regardless of their characteristics, are equally represented in the eyes of the international community. In other words, to live in a world where some aren’t more impacted nor benefited than others.” Too often, the sentiments of people in the Global North are that climate change is a far off prospect that can be tackled with ethical consumerism, recycling and turning off lightbulbs. Within this strain of thought, people in Tuvalu are dehumanised into insignificance. The racial lens cannot be ignored — Would Western media feel differently if white people were at risk? Kato argues that “as individuals living in these systems, it is our duty to promote inclusiveness, the overthrow of structural issues such as environmental racism, and the amplification of the voices that need it the most.”
Saving Tuvalu’s campaign aspires to build systems based on action rather than empty rhetoric — their main drive is rooted in the hope that there is still a future for them. A future that considers Tuvalu, underrepresented nations, and marginalised communities within its ideals.
The communities most affected by the climate crisis are the least responsible for its creation. From sea level rise affecting other South Pacific island like Kiribati and Tuvalu, to typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines and floods of Pakistan, Algeria and Colombia. These communities are disproportionately communities of colour based in the Global South and the Indigenous North. Climate justice requires the status quo to be transformed for everybody, not just for those in positions of power, as we move to a more equitable and greener world.
