Youna Marette (born 2022 Brussels) is a Belgian climate activist . She leads the Youth for Climate movement in the Belgian capital. She is also an anti-racist and feminist activist .
Life
editShe was born in Brussels in 2002 . Due to her mixed race, she was confronted with social injustices at a very young age . The reality of her maternal family, of Senegalese origin, made her aware of agricultural development issues, which she was passionate about at a very young age . She became aware of the over-consumption in the Belgian way of life compared to living conditions in Senegal and how these social injustices are linked to climate injustices .
From the age of 14, she became involved in the fight against North-South inequalities by becoming a member of the NGO Défi Belgique Afrique , for which she herself trained a group of 40 young people in education for global and solidarity citizenship.[1] She was influenced by the film Demain and by reading the IPCC report
Since 2018, she has been a member of the Génération Climat group , a Facebook page that represents the French-speaking counterpart of the Youth for Climate movement. It was launched at the end of December 2017, in Flanders by two other high school girls, Anuna De Wever and Kyra Gantois. It was inspired by Greta Thunberg , who made contact with the two young Flemish girls. She created an event on Facebook to invite young French-speakers to follow the movement .[2]
She is thus at the initiative of the first student strikes. She participated in climate marches and coordinated the weekly student strikes which aimed to mobilize the political class on the issue of global warming. She spoke on this subject in several national and international media outlets.[3]
In February 2019, she was invited by Anne Hidalgo , the mayor of Paris, to a conference on climate She met the Dalai Lama during a spiritual seminar .[4]
In 2020, she was a member of a collective of 20 citizens who called on the government of Alexander De Croo to improve the fight against the ecological emergency: they suggested setting up a citizens' parliament made up of 101 members drawn at random in order to propose new measures for ecology .[5]
In 2022, she is the spokesperson for the "Code Rouge" operation , a collective of around twenty associations active in environmental protection and social struggles which aims to block several TotalEnergies sites.[6]
Activism
editReferences
edit- ^ "Youna Marette". TheMerode. Retrieved 2024-12-24.
- ^ rédaction, La (2019-03-18). ""Pro et anti-climat" : la fracture des deux mondes". Moustique (in French). Retrieved 2024-12-24.
- ^ "18 - Youna Marette - Inspirational speech.JPG | EESC". www.eesc.europa.eu. 2019-03-28. Retrieved 2024-12-24.
- ^ Lisa (2020-06-21). "Youna Marette : « Maintenant, je connais mieux l'ennemi »". Wilfried (in French). Retrieved 2024-12-24.
- ^ "Alors on change ! - Youna Marette". TV5MONDE Europe. 2024-12-24. Retrieved 2024-12-24.
- ^ "Youna Marette, activiste climatique : 'L'année 2023 va être marquée par des actions plus radicales de désobéissance civile'". RTBF (in French). Retrieved 2024-12-24.