'I'm not the only victim': Why these African climate activists will be in Egypt for COP27

The Current23:15The young African climate activists demanding change at COP27

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Growing up in Iten, Kenya, Abigael Kima's family used to pay for her tuition fees using bags of corn they harvested rather than money.

It gave Kima the chance to get an education; an opportunity to study secondary school outside of her hometown.

But when she returned to Iten in 2015, she realized that climate change had taken that same chance away from several of the village's children.

"Changing weather patterns have had drastic impacts on our livelihoods because, for example, we used to plant two seasons of maize, but because of climate change, you can only plant one," she told The Current's Matt Galloway.

The crop reduction was mainly due to the drying up of a local streamthat was her village's primary water source.Kima says that stream disappearedbecause of deforestation and climate change.

"What was shocking for me this year was the fact that we had water rationing from the months of January to around April, which is something that has never happened before in that you only get running water from the tap in the morning," she said.

It's an experience that put Kima on the path towards climate activism. She's since visited other parts of Kenya that were hit hard by climate change and started her own Across all of Africaclimate podcast, Hali Hewa.

She'll also be attending this weekend's United Nations Climate Change Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. It'll be her second COP in as many years.

She says the goal is to bring stories like hers to decision makers.

"So that beyond the numbers, the statistics putting a face to the climate crisis and seeing that, indeed, real people are facing this issue," she said.

'I'm not the only victim'

Kima is far from the only young African activist who will attend COP27. Nyombi Morris, a 24-year-old from Kampala, Uganda, will also be attending the conference.

"The day it was announced that it would be in Africa, everyone was so, so happy because for so many years, we have talked about [the] Global South being left out," he said. "At the same time, we have been talking about [the] Global North exploiting us."

Morris is a [self described] "climate migrant" his family was displaced by flash flooding in 2008 when he was 10 years old. At COP27, he wants to demand compensation and support from world leaders.

"I'm not the only victim, and the number is more than 100,000 people who are said to be displaced in some regions," he said. "Some are already in camps today, and others are said to be displaced."

"So for me, my main focus is on how are we going to make sure that the people who are being displaced how are they going to survive in 2023?"

It's work that Morris says has gotten him in trouble at home.In 2021, Morris was arrested during a climate change protest in Kampala. He said police accused him of inciting violence so close to the January 2021 presidential election, and interrogated about who was financing him.

"So being an activist in Uganda is not something easy," he said. "They look at us as criminals. Also as people who are trying to challenge the development."

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Young Ugandan climate activist pushing for world leaders to help fight climate change

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Nyombi Morris, a 23-year-old climate activist in Uganda, spoke to CBC chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton about the impact of climate change on his country. His message for world leaders at COP26 is 'put an end to fossil fuels and make polluters pay.'

Taking responsibility

According to the United Nations, more than 30,000 people have registered to attend COP27.

Many of those making the trip to Egypt are young people, like Morris and Kima, who may be concerned that world governments are not addressing climate change quickly enough.

"Young people are not just bitter," Morris said. "Most of them are worried of what might happen in the future because they are witnessing everything now."

Kima said it's a concern for many young people from countries such as hers because it's having an immediate effect on their day-to-day lives, which may be overlooked by some in the Western world.

"I feel it's the lack of taking responsibility and not also seeing that this is serious, because maybethe impacts of climate change have not hit home," she said. "But it's happening to us and there's something that needs to be done about it."

For Morris, that something is support and action, from Western governments specifically.

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"I will ask them, if possible, if you cannot approve the $100 billionUS [climate finance goal], it's OK. What you have in your pocket, give us that, because what might happen tomorrow, we are not sure," he said.

"We want to start with what is available. So my mission is for them to accept what is available. If the plans are in place, then what is left? Implementation."

Produced by Julie Crysler.