Indian climate activist Licypriya Kangujam, 12, stormed the stage at COP28 to protest the use of fossil fuels.
With her on stage, she had a sign with the message: “Abolish fossil fuels.” Save our planet and our future.”
Licypriya managed to call out her message and sit down on the stage before the guards intervened and took her away after about half a minute.
The 12-year-old was greeted by the audience’s applause at the same time as she followed the guards out.
COP28 Director-General Majid Al Suwaidi, who was interrupted as Licypriya stormed the stage, praised her enthusiasm for the climate.
– Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen. We are very proud of the enthusiasm of the young people who have joined us, says Majid Al Suwaidi.
– Let’s give her another round of applause.
Roaring against the world leaders
Licypriya Kangujam has subsequently commented on the incident in an interview with the Reuters news agency.
– First COP was COP25 in Madrid, Spain when I was seven years old, and it has been five years since then, there has been no concrete action from our leaders, and our leaders continue to burn our planet, continue to destroy our the planet and our future, she says and continues.
– Asking for clean air to breathe, clean water to drink and a clean planet to live on are all our basic rights. And we don’t have that at all. So how is that fair?
Licypriya Kangujam writes on the social media platform X that she was detained for 30 minutes after the climate action.
“They detained me for over 30 minutes after this protest. My only crime – Asking to phase out fossil fuels, the main cause of the climate crisis today. Now they kicked me out of COP28,” she writes in a post on X.