Meet 10 Changemakers from ChangeNOW

Valentine Montazel (she, her, hers) - Climate Consultant and Activist

Email: valentinemontazel@gmail.com

Insta: @valentinemontazel

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/valentine-montazel

Valentine is French and has been working in the climate sector since 2018 and has been committed to leading climate projects in France and the UK (for COP26 in Glasgow for instance), as well as coordinating campaigns such as Unlock for the Think Tank Positive Money Europe. She's been part of various climate movements, and Valentine is now an environmental consultant, supporting companies and NGOs in their transition to sustainable development. She's also a speaker and conference moderator. She tries to raise awareness on climate change through workshops and campaigns. She believes in the power of influence and the necessity to reach the social tipping point and shift the common narrative towards the transition. That's why she's been coordinating innovative projects to make as many people as possible aware of climate issues, with initiatives on trains, for example.

She has participated in big grassroot mobilizations, such as the Stop EACOP movement against Total Energies' pipeline project in Uganda and Tanzania. She sometimes is a model and actress.

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Inés Yábar (she, her) - Lead Next Generation Fellow UN Foundation

Email: ines.yabar@gmail.com

‍Insta: @ines.pe.rada

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/ines-yabar

Inés is a young activist from Peru who’s been actively working towards a more sustainable future since she was 15. By volunteering in beach cleanups in the coastline of Peru, she helped collect data and organize thousands of volunteers to help inform policies in Peru: leading to the country banning single use plastic bags! Inés’s role as an advocate and activist have merged her passion with her full time job and she currently serves as the Next Generation Fellow lead, supporting young people's leadership in the achievement of the SDGs through local and global actions. Inés is on the board of L.O.O.P. (a grassroots women led Peruvian social impact company conserving the marine ecosystem) and is a co-founder of Ensemble pour TECHO (an organization seeking to overcome poverty in Latin America). Her previous experiences include working with organizations in Sierra Leone, France, Lebanon and Japan to reach the 2030 agenda.

Her personal belief for administering the world God created, has taken her to multiple COPs, from the conference of Youth in 2014 where she was an interpreter right ahead of the historic Paris agreement to being part of the Peruvian delegation in COP25 and representing the Missing Majority at COP26 and COP27. Inés is also a Global Shaper (Lima Hub), co-founder of Mullu (a podcast on sustainable development including Quechua), a Plastic Action Champion and sits on the Global Plastic Action Partnership Advisory committee.

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Samira Ben Ali (she, her) - Climate Justice Campaigner

Email: samira@wy4cj.org

Insta: @iamsamyira

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/samirabenali

Samira Ben Ali is a youth climate justice advocate from the French island of Mayotte. She works as the Outreach and Engagement Coordinator for the World’s Youth for Climate Justice campaign that seeks to bring climate justice to the International court of justice. Parallely, She is a consultant for the Advisory Committee on the Protection of the Sea and the international co-coordinator of CliMates France. She is  engaged in various initiatives to advocate for more diversity, inclusivity and youth participation in the climate policy making process. As such, she serves as an European Climate Pact Ambassador for the European Commission and she is a Public Policy New Voices Europe Fellow for the Salzburg Global Seminar. She firmly believes that through ambitious and effective implementation of international law we can safeguard the rights of the most vulnerable communities as well as current and future generations.

She is an active member of the Early Career Ocean Professional group of the UN Ocean Decade. She is also a member of YOUNGO and IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law.

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Tanya Haldipur (She/her) - Climate Consultant

Email: tnhaldipur@gmail.com

Insta: @art_bytan

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/tanya-haldipur-ba46ba138

Tanya is a climate consultant and designer working at the intersection of climate change, mental health and community design. She transitioned from commercial architecture to post-disaster shelter and settlement planning and is currently the Focal Point for the Global Shelter Cluster’s Recovery Community of Practice in London, United Kingdom. Through this role, as well as her other consulting work, she endeavors to raise awareness of the long-term impacts of the climate crisis on marginalized communities and their cultures. She strongly believes in the power of art in communicating the complexities of the climate crisis and is currently leading Youth Climate Collaborative’s Climate Courage mental health journal project, which incorporates artwork, poetry and guided meditations from 35+ creative youths around the world to prevent burnout in the fight for climate justice.

She is currently building a sustainable wedding stationery business focused on reducing the amount of waste created in South-Asian weddings, without compromising on rituals and customs.

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Qiyun (she, her), pronounced chi-yoonsome - Founder & Creative Storyteller at The Weird and Wild

Insta: @theweirdandwild

LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in-qiyun-woo  

Qiyun is a Singaporean climate activist, National Geographic Young Explorer and creative storyteller. Qiyun is recognized as a prominent sustainability communicator, known for her ability to translate complex climate change topics into accessible information for diverse audiences. She founded The Weird and Wild 6 years ago, an educational platform that explores climate issues visually. Qiyun noticed that there were few publicly available resources that communicated the amazing climate change research done by local academics that centered Southeast Asia. Using her background in environmental science and corporate sustainability, she embarked on a mission to popularize climate change information by producing educational content that is engaging and relatable to a digital audience.

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‍Fredrick Binamungu Simon - Africa Rep / Communication Lead

Organization: Global Youth Coalition / Green Samia Platform

Insta: @fredrickbinamungu

LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/frederick-binamungu-simon-36ab0621b

Fredrick Binamungu is a global climate advocate, international negotiator, and project manager. He has worked with both international and local organizations and is a leader, and Global Human Rights Defender Award Winner advocating for social justice, economic rights, climate justice, and gender equality. He is the African representative at the Global Youth Coalition, a founding member of the Sisi Tanzania, a Communication Lead at Green Samia Platform Tanzania, YOUNGO member, and an SDG Champion for Goals 1, 4, and 13.

Fredrick has participated in numerous conferences and events including COYs, SBs, Conference of Parties (27, 28), ACS23, and UNEP. He has also implemented various successful environmental projects and campaigns Advocating on loss and damage/funding, Climate Justice. and he has contributed to clean cooking projects in different organizations in Tanzania.

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Mila Sirychenko (she, her) - Nature Climate and Peace Activist

Email: luy.sirichenko@gmail.com

Insta: @mila.sirychenko

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/mila-sirychenko

Mila Sirychenko is a climate, nature, and peace activist and a policy advocate for the sustainable recovery of Ukraine. She grew up in one of the most industrialized and polluted cities in Ukraine – Mariupol, and participated in a CSO demonstration against air and land pollution from a young age. Following the Russian full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, and the destruction and occupation of Mariupol, she decided to speak up about her experience and the interlink between military conflicts, oil dependencies, climate, peace, and the biodiversity crisis. Mila spoke at BBC Radio 5 for over a year as a part of the BBC Ukrainian Family, sharing her experiences as a war refugee and climate activist. After entering Central European University in 2022 and completing a Master of Environmental Sciences and Policy as a Fellow of BayWa R.E., Mila started working at WWF Central and Eastern Europe as a Policy Officer and Researcher for the nature, climate, and people-friendly recovery of Ukraine. Among her biggest achievements are contributions to the amendments and associated advocacy efforts within the EU institutions for the 50 billion Euro Ukraine Facility aid package. As part of her activism and advocacy work, she actively participated in various conferences such as COY17, COP27, SB58, COP7, RCOY Eastern Europe, etc.

Mila is a part of the Policy and Strategy Working Groups of the Global Coordination Team 2024 of YOUNGO, the children and youth constituency of the UNFCCC. Mila is a nominee of Youth for the Future WWF Initiative, where together with a team of young advocates, she will contribute to the development and amendments of the UN Pact For the Future for UNGA79. She is also a part of Fridays For Future Ukraine and a new member of the Global Shapers Community in Vienna.

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Sophia Yang (she, her, hers) - Founder & Executive Director, Threading Change / Corporate Campaigner, Canopy Planet

Email: sophia@threadingchange.org

Insta: @kaleidosophia & @threadingchange

Company website: threadingchange.org

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/sophiaayangg

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/kaleidosophia

Sophia is the Founder & Executive Director of Threading Change, an ethical fashion organization working at the intersections of climate, gender, and racial justice in alignment with the necessary transition to a circular economy. Sophia also dedicates her time to working as a Corporate Campaigner at the award-winning environmental organization Canopy Planet. Widely recognized as a youth and fashion climate champion across Canada, Sophia is the recipient of the City of Vancouver's Greenest City Leadership Award in 2022, Corporate Knights’ Top 30 Under 30 Sustainability Leaders in Canada list in 2021, recipient of the No.9 Contemporary Art & The Environment and Harrowsmith Magazine's inaugural Youth Changemaker Award in 2023, and Starfish Canada’s Top 25 Under 25 Environmentalists award in 2017 and 2018. Sophia has attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP24 & 25) twice as a British Columbian Youth Delegate with BCCIC, COP27 as part of Environment and Climate Change Canada's delegation, led the Threading Change delegation at COP28 in Dubai, and also participated as a speaker in various conferences across North America, such as Circularity 22, LuxePack New York, GLOBE Forum, and New York Climate Week.

Sophia is a Global Shapers leader in the Vancouver, Canada Hub, a #GenerationRestoration Youth Hub Member with 1t.org, and sits on several youth climate mentorship and philanthropic advisory committees. In her spare time, Sophia is a techno/house DJ under the moniker ‘KALEIDO’, having traveled and played across Canada, Thailand, Vietnam, and Mexico.

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Pablo Flyesome - Co-founder of Fridays For Future France

Email: flyepablo@gmail.com

Insta: @pablo.flye

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/pablo-flye-68168523b

Pablo is a climate activist that is passionate about driving positive change and fighting for a sustainable future. He co-founded Fridays For Future France, a youth-led movement dedicated to addressing the urgent climate crisis through advocacy and activism, especially by organizing climate strikes. He has been campaigning for 1 year to convince the French government to accept the creation of a financial transactions tax at 0.1% at the European level. He’s now leading a task force working to make the youth progressives participate in the European election on June 9th, thanks to Get-Out-the-Vote appeals prepared with celebrities and content creators. With a background in advocacy and mobilization campaigns, Pablo has dedicated his career to amplifying the voices of young people and making them aware of environmental issues. Through strategic campaigns and grassroots mobilization efforts, he works to raise awareness, influence policy, and inspire collective action towards a greener and more equitable world.

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Shomy Hasan Chowdhury (she, her) - Co-Founder, Awareness 360

Email: shomy.chowdhury94@gmail.com

Insta: @prevashomy

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/shomy-hasan-chowdhury‍

Shomy Hasan Chowdhury is an award-winning Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) activist from Bangladesh, and the Co-Founder of the global non-profit Awareness 360. She is a development professional with 10+ years of experience in community development. Her notable recognitions include Forbes 30 Under 30, President’s Volunteer Service Award (Gold) by President Barack Obama, Putra Icon Award, and The Diana Legacy Award. She is also the first Bangladeshi to sit on the 2021 Diana Legacy Award Judging Panel, a McCain Global Leader, Global Citizen Advocate, Asia Pacific's first Samsung Global-UNDP Generation17 Ambassador, Specialist for the CEE initiative of the US State Department, International Election Observer and sits on leadership & advisory positions of multiple international organizations. Shomy holds a Master's in Global Affairs from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, as a Schwarzman Scholar, one of the most competitive graduate scholarships in the world. A global youth icon, Shomy, has spoken at and been seen on the United Nations, The White House, Kensington Palace, BBC, MSNBC, TEDx, Nasdaq, Forbes, Hello!, Humans of Kuala Lumpur, and many more. Having worked with youths from 100+ countries, she is currently based in London, UK, working as the Project Manager for the Centre for Social Action at The Diana Award.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Pooja Tilvawala (she, her, hers) - Founder and Executive Director, Youth Climate Collaborative

Email: pooja@youthcc.org

Insta: @pooja.tilvawala and @youthclimatecollab

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/pooja-tilvawala

Website: youthcc.org

Pooja is an award-winning global climate justice leader who founded and runs Youth Climate Collaborative, which strives to make the climate movement more just, inclusive, intergenerational, and one that activates and sustains youth. In addition, she is the Co-Founder of the Entertainment + Culture Foundation which organized the first-ever Entertainment + Culture for Climate Action Pavilion at COP28. She is also an advisor for several youth-funding organizations and initiatives, such as Rivet, an advisor for Penn State University's Global Youth Research and Storytelling Lab, Alumni Committee Chair of the Aspen Institute Future Leaders Initiative, Alumni Committee Member of the Walking Softer Young Leaders Program, judge for various youth climate funds, a public speaker, and member of the Green Leadership Trust. Her work increases access for and retention of youth solutionists in our movement, helps youth facing eco-anxiety, advances intergenerational and participatory decision-making, engages youth in UNFCCC processes, provides media training, builds community, and more.