Malala Yousafzai

New youthful voice on climate?

Climate is not Malala’s topic, but she was nominated as someone who would tick boxes in terms of being a new and surprising voice on inter-generational climate justice. Famous initially as the girl who stood up to the Taliban for her right to go to school, Malala has emerged as an articulate, resonating global voice on educational rights. Although Malala’s voice would undoubtedly carry weight if she did talk on climate, her inclusion on this list is better understood as simply as “a climate Malala” until such a voice emerges. But perhaps we can hope for something less cliched than that, and it’s not for older generations to decide the perimeters of what a new, youthful voice might look like, that’s partly the point. We’d like to see space made for such voices though, and one place to look might be the Adopt a Negotiator programme.