‘Our Voices Matter’: young climate leader calls for girls’ empowerment

At just 15 years old, Zunaira Qayyum has already emerged as a climate champion and a UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Youth Advocate for Climate Action and Girls’ Empowerment in Pakistan.

In 2022, she began researching how floods and heatwaves in her hometown of Hub, Balochistan, were forcing girls out of school. Her work earned her recognition as one of the winners of UNICEF’s Policy Research Challenge the following year.

Today, children across Pakistan face mounting threats from floods, heatwaves, and other extreme weather events, which are making access to education increasingly difficult.

UN News’s Hareem Ahmed spoke with Zunaira about her advocacy for gender and climate justice, as well as her views on the importance of youth inclusion in climate action.