Meet Yehansa
I’m Yehansa, I’m 16 living in Sydney on Wallumedegal land, with roots in Sri Lanka. In both places, I see the climate crisis unfolding before my eyes.
In Sri Lanka, my cousins’ education is disrupted by extreme weather. My relatives struggle with deadly heat and food insecurity.
It’s hitting my family in Western Sydney too. We bake in heatwaves. And I know this is just the beginning.
I’ve been a climate activist since I was 13, working to advocate for my communities, lobbying in Canberra, running petitions with my friends in my local area, speaking on panels, spending hours in my MP’s office, publishing research and working on law reform. I’ve spent years working towards climate action, and I believe it has fundamentally changed the trajectory of my life.
Australia is one of the world’s biggest coal exporters – this isn’t something to be proud of.
Climate change isn’t just an environmental crisis, it’s a human rights crisis. It’s changing childhoods, futures, lives.
Young people already have the vision for a stronger, fairer, more sustainable world. We are more than capable at designing and creating a better world.
This is a chance to unite the world under a common vision, a chance for all of us – no matter who we are – to work towards something meaningful.
We don’t just need politicians to listen – we need them to act. It’s their responsibility to back real youth-designed, hope-led solutions, not the industries destroying our future.
