Youth activist Mitzi Jonelle Tan is pictured at the Sharm el-Sheikh International Convention Center, during the COP27 climate conference in Egypt's Red Sea resort city of the same name, on November 14, 2022. Mohammed Abed/ AFP
But she also witnesses the repression of those struggling to push environmental causes, saying she was "illegally detained" when protesting against Filipino mining interests in 2018. During her time at COP27, in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, along with moderating discussions and giving press interviews, Tan has led protests demanding the negotiators and world leaders sitting in the conference halls act more urgently for climate justice.
At that point the Swedish activist had led student climate strikes for two years, since the age of 15. According to an open letter to world leaders, the members campaign to link the climate crisis with global "systemic injustices." "There is an analogy where you hit my car and I have to borrow money from you to fix it—it doesn't make sense," she said, arguing that wealthy Global North countries "have a debt to pay" for climate change.