When we think of climate-change advocacy, we usually think of recycling and planting trees.
But for 15-year-old Priyanka Lalla it's much more. For her, it's a daily practice of "eating green and living blue." She says "eating green" is looking at what we are eating and where we are sourcing our food, as well as what is in our food. "Living blue" means we are consciously trying to reduce our environmental impacts and greenhouse gas emissions.
Lalla, who lives in Valsayn, is in grade nine at the International School of Port of Spain (ISPS) in Westmoorings. She became a climate-change advocate at the age of ten after witnessing the devastating effects of two hurricanes on neighbouring islands.
"In 2017, when hurricanes Irma and Maria struck the Leeward Islands, I was so devastated, seeing the impacts on fellow islands and what their young people were facing. Children were out of school, they lost their belongings, their homes, their families and everything they had worked so hard for was lost.
"It was shocking because I had never seen anything so devastating happen before. This inspired me to do research to learn about what I could do, inclusive of small changes, that could help those affected by the hurricanes," Lalla told Newsday.
The teenage climate activist represented Trinidad and Tobago at the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow, and has worked with the UN International Children's Emergency Fund, the Caribbean Public Health Agency, Healthy Caribbean Coalition, the UN Development Programme, the UN Environmental Programme, and Caribbean Youth Environment Network in different capacities.
[caption id="attachment_929905" align="alignnone" width="832"] Priyanka Lalla became a climate-change advocate at the age of ten after witnessing the devastating effects of two hurricanes on neighbouring islands. - SUREASH CHOLAI[/caption]
She has also held many prestigious positions for one so young – she was appointed a child rights ambassador under the Office of the Prime Minister in 2018, through which she became the chairperson of the Child Ambassador sub-committee of the National Child Policy Committee.
Her work as an ambassador involves representing TT at international youth advocacy platforms such as the World Cities Day (WCD) in October 2020, in Dubai, where Lalla spoke on the rights of the child and the effects of climate change.
Her role as a child ambassador has taught her about the rights and responsibility of the child, which she said is directly linked to her climate work, with particular focus on the rights to education, health and to live in a safe and protected environment. She said the climate change issues that TT and the region are facing has a direct link to other issues, such as non-communicable diseases.
Lalla's advocacy journey began with simple internet research that led her to pursue zero-waste living, and to try to convince her family and schoolmates to do the same, through using zero-waste lunch-kits – reusable and sustainable cutlery and containers, with food and vegetables
