Priyanka Lalla: climate-change activist at 15

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.

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 grown at home. Her eight-year-old sister Svars has joined her in the zero-waste lifestyle, helping to keep the family “in check” when it comes to using reusable and sustainable items.

Lalla also started a campaign at her school
which included posters designed by her friend Jaden Kissoon also 15, and discussions with her peers and teachers on the benefits of the lunch-kits. She said this way of living makes for positive personal health and environmental impacts by cutting down on carbon footprints and helping to build a cleaner and more sustainable community. Her advocacy has been endorsed by the former president of Colombia and Nobel Peace laureate Juan Manuel Santos.

"As young people we have so much power and potential within us to create change and advocate and stand up for what we want…It's important for young people to understand that they have the power to do it, especially when they have the drive inside of them, they can create this change and achieve anything that they want."

Lalla said one of her biggest inspirations is Anne Frank, to whom she compares herself in terms of advocacy and fighting for an amplified voice that invokes change and policy-making.

"In times of destruction and devastation she still felt the urgency to share not only what was happening around her and her experiences but a message of hope; that things will get better, that there is still a sense of hope around her...one of the most important messages from her book was that we all have the right to freedom."

Frank was a German-Dutch diarist of Jewish heritage who documented her life while in hiding between 1941-1944 during World War II. She gained fame when her book, The Diary of a Young Girl, was published in 1947. By then Frank had died in the Nazi concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen at 15, in 1945.

Lalla said working with these organisations has given her many opportunities to have inter-generational dialogue, through which the experiences of young people are included in these discussions so policy makers and leaders can learn from them, and vice versa.

"It is important for our leaders in society and policy makers to recognise that we also do need the capacity building, the opportunities to really create this change, we need there to be generational teamwork and dialogue.

"Sometimes we cannot be educated enough in our households, so it is important to have teachers and mentors. The school curriculum should be crafted in such a way that even when young people do not have these opportunities in their households there can still be access to opportunity through education."

Lalla also gets support from other young people in the Caribbean who share similar passions, allowing for mutual learning and exchange of ideas.

She said her family is very supportive of her advocacy and they are helping her to decide on her career path. But though she has strong family support, she is also a firm believer in the education system as a form of support for young people.

"After my fourth year of advocacy, having had the opportunity to learn from so many people, it encouraged me to speak up at webinars, seminars, and panel discussions, to take my voice beyond just social media and try to push it more to help inspire as many young people as I can.

"This was one of the things that helped me realise that even people in SIDS (small islands developing states) can stand up at COP26 or an event as big as that and demand what we want from our leaders in society and what we want to see in the future."

Lalla said her ideal future would be a world where every child and young person has the right to an education – the foundation of solving the climate crisis. She said TT is being adversely affected by climate change, as can be seen with frequent flash flooding and intense heat, which the country must learn to mitigate and adapt to.

Lalla, a black-belt jujitsu, spends her free time practising the artform, which she said has been instrumental in pushing her to where she is today. She said the strength and resilience learnt through jujitsu kept her pushing through with her advocacy when she felt like she wasn’t being heard. She also enjoys spending painting and playing with her dogs Napoleon and Zeus.