Changemakers
for the Planet
at COP31

COP31, hosted by Türkiye in Antalya, is critical for accelerating implementation of the Paris Agreement and scaling climate finance at the scale required. It matters deeply to young people because the decisions made today will shape the climate, economies, communities, and opportunities they inherit. Their meaningful participation can help ensure that climate action is ambitious, fair, and responsive to the realities of present and future generations.

We provide support based on each member’s individual needs, including UN accreditation, travel, accommodation or a combination of these.

We build a supportive cohort where delegates connect, exchange insights, troubleshoot together throughout COP31.

We spotlight our members’ stories and experiences across platforms, sharing their on-the-ground insights and impact with a wider audience.

This year’s delegation includes young people working on some of the most urgent challenges in the climate space right now: protecting Virunga National Park from oil exploration, advancing Indigenous Maasai storytelling and policy, strengthening Indigenous youth leadership in Brazil, turning algae into bioplastics in Türkiye, campaigning for ocean and climate action, building a circular fashion sector, and more. A group of young leaders from across Africa, MENA, Asia, Europe, North America, Latin America, and the Pacific, all bringing proven experience, bold ideas, and specific goals to advance at COP31.

Kamate’s street mobilisation led to the withdrawal of permits granted to the oil company Soco for exploitation in Virunga National Park, and helped provisionally cancel the auction of 27 oil wells and 3 gas wells in North Kivu. He has organised 11 grassroots organisations around feminism and the climate crisis in a context of ongoing conflict, and submitted a bill to the North Kivu provincial assembly on the rights of displaced people and refugees. At COP31 he wants to remind global decision-makers of the DRC’s role as the world’s second largest rainforest and mobilise against fossil fuel expansion in the Congo Basin.
Kamate François Kasereka

Baliqees leads Green Republic Farms, promoting climate-smart agriculture, renewable energy and food security across Nigeria, and serves as Climate Director at GAYO, supporting youth-led climate advocacy across Africa. She previously served on the Global Center on Adaptation’s Youth Advisory Panel. At COP31 she is representing GAYO’s African Youth Negotiators Fellowship, building the capacity of young Africans to engage in international climate negotiations.
Baliqees Salaudeen-Ibrahim

Durlabh founded Climate Forward Pakistan, a youth-led platform now with over 40 team members working on climate justice, equity and resilience. He is building the South Asian Youth Network on Just Transition, already with 11 partner organisations, and runs a Youth@COP programme that sent 9 delegates to international climate conferences last year. At COP31 he will focus on Just Transition and interfaith dialogue, and represent outcomes from Pakistan’s People’s Climate Townhalls.
Durlabh Ashok

Roaa founded United Beyond Borders to raise climate awareness in conflict-affected countries, building a community of 700+ activists and running grassroots activities across 8 countries. She sits on the steering committee for COP31’s Children and Youth Pavilion and is coordinating RCOY MENA 2026, whose regional youth statement will feed into the Global Youth Statement handed to the COP31 Presidency at COY21. She is also a longstanding YOUNGO member and helped bring together 1,000+ participants at last year’s Baku youth forum headline event.
Roaa Dafaallah

Keshoe founded The New Lion, an Indigenous Maasai youth-led organisation using storytelling and film to build youth leadership in climate and biodiversity policy. He is developing a leadership cohort, Larikok Future, to build Indigenous youth capacity for policy influence, alongside a book on systems change rooted in culture and sustainability. At COP31 he wants to bring Indigenous perspectives into loss and damage and climate finance conversations, and host screenings connecting culture to climate policy.
Keshoe Isaiah Kilerai

Sally leads youth work within APIB, working with Indigenous youth across Brazil to strengthen leadership, advocate for Indigenous rights and climate justice, and ensure Indigenous participation in national and international climate policy. She has been active in mobilising Indigenous youth around territorial protection, biodiversity conservation and the recognition of traditional knowledge as a climate solution. At COP31 she wants to carry the mandate of Brazil’s Indigenous rights movement into the international policy space.
Sally Nhandewa

Eylül founded Palgae, replacing fossil-based plastics with algae biomass, a material that grows without land, freshwater or fertiliser, while interrupting the carbon and warming impact of unchecked algae blooms. She works across two tracks: building a commercially viable materials business, and advocating through climate policy for the systems that let solutions like hers scale. At COP31 she is co-hosting a workshop on algae blooms along Türkiye’s coasts, connecting material innovation to biodiversity conservation.
Eylül Er

Jesmine works as an energy assistant in her Nation, supporting housing retrofits toward net zero and managing solar project implementation. As a Re-Earth Initiative Climate Policy Fellow on the Mitigation Track, she advocates for Indigenous Peoples’ rights at local, national and global levels. At COP31 she wants to advance the Mitigation Work Programme’s recognition of Indigenous rights, and learn from other Indigenous delegates working on clean energy.
Jesmine Craig

Mathias founded Live Love Recycle, a digitised waste management venture in Lebanon, using a mobile app and a growing network of community recycling shops to cut transport times, costs and emissions while diverting thousands of tonnes of material from landfill. He sits on the steering committee for COP31’s Children and Youth Pavilion. At COP31 he wants to build partnerships ahead of expanding his model into the Turkish market, drawing on the host country’s Zero Waste framework.
Mathias Charles

Mark has worked at the intersection of ocean and climate since 2021, co-producing the Global Blue New Deal with the Sustainable Ocean Alliance ahead of COP26, and leading the #CommitToOcean campaign that helped elevate ocean issues in the COP30 Action Agenda. At COP31 he is building a campaign against seabed mining and structuring an ocean-climate campaign centring Pacific and Turkish perspectives.
Mark Dalton Haver

Steve founded Youth Pawa, running mangrove restoration, community-led conservation and education programmes on the Kenyan coast, alongside sustainable livelihood projects to help communities adapt to a changing climate. At COP31 he wants to connect local restoration work to global adaptation and mitigation conversations, and learn from peer networks at the Children and Youth Pavilion and Ocean Pavilion.
Steve Misati

Sophia founded Threading Change, the world’s largest youth-led ethical fashion NGO, leading a team of 10 staff and 50+ volunteers globally. She previously led COP27 and COP28 delegations with Environment and Climate Change Canada. At COP31 she is launching an SDGs x Fashion Youth Program with the Fair Labor Association and UNEP, connecting young leaders with mentors to strengthen youth participation in circular fashion and climate policy.
Sophia Yang

Kaeden is an Indigenous rights advocate and policy expert from the Māori tribes of Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Tūwharetoa and Tūhoe, working at the intersection of Indigenous rights, climate action and health. He has attended four COPs as part of Indigenous delegations and as a representative of Indigenous Peoples in UNFCCC negotiating processes. At COP31 he is formally launching the International Indigenous Adaptation Network, a new Indigenous-led global network focused on direct access to adaptation finance, deliberately timed for COP31 because of the convergence of Indigenous leaders, decision-makers and funders it brings together.
Kaeden Watts

Seruni is a climate governance researcher working on intergenerational equity and just transition across energy transition, tropical forest fiscal policy and waste governance in Southeast Asia. She serves on UNIDO’s Energy and Climate Action Youth Advisory Group (2026-2028), focusing on people-centred industrial decarbonisation, and co-founded Catalyst of Change ASEAN to empower youth and marginalised communities in climate governance. At COP31 she is working to move informal waste workers from case-study materials into policy language in the Zero Waste thematic outcome, and to deliver youth-authored implementation input through the UNIDO Youth Advisory Group channel.
Seruni Salsabila

Through Changemakers for the Planet we search, identify, and recruit young changemakers, activists and leaders, who tackle climate change, biodiversity loss, air, sea and land pollution.

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Changemakers
for the Planet
at COP31

Why COP31

How We Support

Tailored Support

Community Experience

Amplification

ChangemakerXchange Delegation

This delegation is part of our broader Changemakers for the Planet programme

Changemakersfor the Planetat COP31

Why COP31

How We Support

Tailored Support

Community Experience

Amplification

ChangemakerXchange Delegation

This delegation is part of our broader Changemakers for the Planet programme

Changemakers
for the Planet
at COP31