Vanessa Nakate’s involvement in climate justice started as a passion cultivated through personal formation and realisations about the effects of climate change suffered by the very people she is surrounded by. On a family level, Nakate’s upbringing in Kampala Uganda and witnessing her father’s involvement in their local Rotary Club deeply inspired her cause for climate activism.
On a personal level, Nakate started to become drawn to climate activism in 2018 after being exposed to local news about floods in the Swathes of East Africa and experiencing the phenomenon itself in Kampala, and witnessing the effects it had on the communities inhabiting it. She also noted in her memoir how the recurring Karamoja droughts between 2016 and 2017 in the northeastern region of Uganda eventually led to food insecurity. She emphasised a shift of perspective, wherein she started looking at the climate disasters as an immediate reality for livelihoods faced by many people in Africa. Additionally, she mentioned how frustrated she felt over the lack of education and institutional response people had over climate matters.
In reiteration, Nakate’s distinction as a global climate leader lies in the symbolic significance she possesses, as a woman of colour in the pursuit of change in a westernised landscape. Arguably, her pre-existing advocacy for the inclusion of already suffering communities into the climate agenda gained more visibility after the 2020 Davos, WEF, photo cropping incident. This report identifies the incident as her defining moment that brought wider attention to her activism. Nakate was invited by the Arctic Basecamp (an organisation of scientists raising alarm about the Arctic warming) in Davos, Switzerland to engage in advocacy and awareness raising. Though they did not participate in the WEF itself, they visited local schools and took part in educating children about the climate crisis. On January 24, 2020, Nakate along with prominent European activists such as Thunberg, Neubauer, Axelsson, and Tille, were invited to speak at a FFF press conference.
Following the press conference, the Associated Press (AP) published an article with a photograph of a group of notable activists, featuring Thunberg, Neubauer, Axelsson, and Tille, in which Nakate, despite being present, was cropped out of the photo. Shortly after realising the incident, Nakate posted a video response on her X account, stating: “You erasing our voices won’t change anything”. She added: “This is the first time in my life that I understood the definition of the word racism”. Instead of framing the incident solely as a personal offense, Nakate deliberately situated it as a broader critique, drawing attention towards the wider problem of persistent marginalisation of African voices in the global climate agenda and media coverage. She then received media inquiries from local and international outlets, giving her a platform to discuss matters such as racism and media bias. With increased attention online, it sparked a divide in the debate, wherein there were those who understood and supported her side and others receiving the video negatively. The attention also drew backlash from online trolls questioning her motives.
The incident, though not necessarily a moment of triumph, legitimised what Nakate had already been arguing and gave her the leverage to take her agenda to an international level. Her activism demonstrates that the marginalisation of low- and middle-income countries in climate discussions is not incidental but rather structurally rooted in an exclusive global agenda-setting system. The cynical responses that her video received, that framed climate activism as the domain of white activists, illustrated the exclusion that happens when marginalised groups are disregarded in global climate discussions.
IE x RAIA Summer Research Programme: Vanessa Nakate Profile
This article is an excerpt from a report on Vanessa Nakate produced as part of a RAIA research programme on climate leaders. For a full picture of Nakate’s climate leadership, including the sources, read the full report. This project was fully financed by IE University’s School of Politics, Economics and Global Affairs and School of Science and Technology.
Authors: Maïa Ines Mallet De Vandègre, Trixie Claudette Nebres & Lucia Piederiet
Editor: Ksenia Kumanina
Project Lead: Dario Hasenstab
