Eleanor Corney
An 11 year-old climate activist confronted UK Energy Minister over protest arrests. Energy Minister Zac Goldsmith was guided away by staff, who prevented young activist Licypriyan Kangujam from asking any more questions.
What happened?
11 year-old climate activist, Licpriya Kangujam, was filmed asking UK energy Minister Zac Goldsmith when protesters would be released. This took place at the COP27 climate conference that took place in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt on Monday.
In the video posted to Twitter, Kangujam stated: “The government is putting them into jail for protesting against oil and new gas. When are you going to release them?”
Goldsmith’s staff were seen guiding him away and blocked Kangujam from asking any further questions.
Recently, climate activists in the UK have been throwing soup at paintings, blocking motorways, and throwing paint on buildings.
The activist group Just Stop Oil has claimed that 35 of their supporters have been imprisoned on remand, or are serving sentences.
Kangujam claimed that the UK energy Minister was unaware of the arrests. She also said: “Climate activists should not get arrested for peaceful protest, and also he can’t do anything. But I want to ask him why is he a minister if he can’t do anything – why he is in COP27?”
The young activist claimed that actions like throwing paint on buildings were a last resort for protestors.
In addition to this, she said: “This is not fair, this is unacceptable. Climate activists are not doing any violence or anything like that.”
Licpriya Kangujam: climate activist
Licpriya Kangujam is from Manipur, North East of India. She claimed to have been inspired to take action on climate change after cyclone Titli, in 2018, and cyclone Fani in 2019. Both brought death and destruction to India.
Kangujam moved to New Dehli in 2019, at the age of 7. She started standing outside of India’s Parliament building urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take action on climate change.
She claimed: “My life was completely messed up due to the high air pollution level and heat wave crisis, so such incidents I faced in my own life turned me into a child climate activist.”
Kangujam has often been likened to Greta Thunberg, the Swedish climate activist. However, she has said that she has her own identity and story. Furthermore, she has stated that she began her movement before Thunberg.
Photo by Li-An Lim on Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
