Vanessa Nakate is a climate activist from Uganda. She began her journey in 2018 and recently added a Time Earth Award, which honors individuals influencing the future of the planet through their work on climate justice, awareness, and activism, to her growing list of accolades.
During her acceptance speech, she dedicated her latest honor to the millions of other climate justice activists around the world, and emphasized the power of mass movements to enact change.
“Awards are an important signal,” she said. “They are a recognition of essential work that is being done. But awards will not save those who are already losing their lives and livelihoods on the frontline of the climate crisis.”
Nakate grew up in the Ugandan capital of Kampala. She holds a degree in Business Administration in Marketing from Makerere University Business School. She came to the forefront of the climate justice movement after becoming concerned about the unusually high temperatures in her country.
Nakate was the First Fridays For Future climate activist in Uganda and the founder of the Rise up Climate Movement, which aims to boost the voices of activists from Africa. Her work includes raising awareness to the danger of climate change and its causes and the impacts. She initiated and led the campaign to save Congo’s rainforest, which is facing massive deforestation. This campaign later spread to other countries from Africa to Europe. She is also working on a project that involves installation of solar and institutional stoves in schools.
Nakate has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2022. On her first trip with UNICEF, she traveled to Kenya to see firsthand the impacts of water and food insecurity caused by the worst drought in the Horn of Africa in 40 years.
Nakate has addressed world leaders at multiple climate summits and appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 2021. She has been the recipient of the Haub Law Environmental Award, the Helmut Schmidt Future Prize, and the Gates Foundation Global Goalkeeper Award. Her book, “A Bigger Picture: My Fight to Bring a New African Voice to the Climate Crisis,” was published in October 2021.