The Hillary Institute has named Ugandan Climate Change activist Vanessa Nakate the 2022 Hillary Laureate for exceptional leadership in Climate Action.
Announcing the news in a statement released on Thursday, May 25, the Institute’s Founder Mark Prain said the leadership already being demonstrated by Vanessa in her mid-20s is a remarkable tribute to her myriad of gifts and passionate commitment to Climate action, and to the African continent’s demand for equitable change, where her work is firmly based.
Vanessa is the 11th Global Laureate and joins an illustrious line-up of ten annual Hillary Laureates to receive this prestigious global award since the inaugural Laureate, carbon tracker, rewilder and author Jeremy Leggett (UK) in 2009. They include renowned Swedish Climate Scientist, Johan Röckstrom; the founder of Amazon Watch, Atossa Soltani; former President of Kiribati, Anote Tong, and Nakate’s immediate predecessor, Christiana Figueres (Costa Rica), the architect of the 2015 Paris Climate Accord.
Reacting to the news in a statement, Vanessa said she was honoured by the prestigious global award and reechoed Africa’s climate crisis and the need for leaders prioritize Climate Change.
“The climate crisis is the greatest threat that humanity faces – but it is also a brutal reality that people in Africa are facing right now in the form of drought, flooding, cyclones and landslides. I’m honoured to be named the 2022 Hillary Laureate and to have the support of The Hillary Institute in my efforts to tell the stories of the communities most affected by the climate crisis, and to urge leaders from the global north to initiate a facility for Loss and Damage finance at COP27,” said Vanessa Nakate.
Vanessa Nakate is a climate activist and author from Uganda and the founder of the Africa-based Rise Up Movement. She began striking for the climate in her home town of Kampala in January 2019 after witnessing droughts and flooding devastating communities in Uganda. She now campaigns internationally to highlight climate change impacts already playing out in Africa and the larger global north-south ‘Loss and Damage’ challenge. This has seen her powerfully engaging audiences from COP26 at Glasgow, to the World Economic Forum at Davos, to meeting with His Holiness Pope Francis. Vanessa has been named one of TIME magazine’s 100 emerging global leaders and one of the Financial Times’ 25 Most Influential Women of 2021.
The institute will work alongside Vanessa over the next year, encouraging her to do more of the remarkable work she is already doing. Support from her fellow Laureates globally will be further augmented by the involvement of the Edmund Hillary Fellowship (EHF), made up of more than 500 technologists, creatives, investors, entrepreneurs, educators and systems designers, from 57 nationalities, all committed to New Zealand as a base camp for global impact.
