On the occasion of the bi-annual European Youth Event (EYE) in Strasbourg on 13 and 14 June 2025, UNRIC interviewed four young activists about their work, aspirations and the message they hope to convey to world leaders.
One of them is Benjamin Van Bunderen Robberechts. Benjamin, 18, is a climate and children’s rights activist from Belgium. He is passionate about protecting our planet to create a safer, healthier future for the young people of today and tomorrow. At EYE2025, he will be representing the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
- Why did you become a youth activist?
In the summer of 2021, during the Western European floods, my friend Rosa, who was 15 and a climate activist like me, was torn from my arms by the raging water. 220 people died that night in Belgium and Germany.
After that, the climate crisis stopped being about graphics and targets. It became about names and loss. The first action of Climate Justice for Rosa wasn’t a press release or a petition, it was a march. Rosa’s friends and I joined a massive climate protest in Brussels, all dressed in red, carrying a huge banner: “Politicians die of old age. Rosa died of climate change.” We made it impossible for people to look away.
- What is one of the most important concepts in your work?
The concept of intergenerational climate justice means calling out how older generations chose profit and convenience, while being fully aware of its cost to our future.
The Belgian writer David Van Reybrouck calls it the “colonisation of the future” — and he is right. Just as past systems exploited distant lands for short-term gain, today’s systems exploit the future: taking what they want now, leaving the damage for generations to come.
The ocean is choking, coral reefs are dying, and entire ecosystems are vanishing. The systems that keep us alive are breaking down in real time. We need drastic action to save what we still can.
And young people are feeling that things are going wrong. According to the largest global study on climate anxiety, 75% of them say the future feels frightening because of climate change, and nearly half say it affects their daily lives. Others tell me they are not sure they want kids. That level of fear should be treated as a political emergency.
UNICEF says 99% of children are already exposed to at least one major environmental hazard. And yet, we still don’t have a real seat at the table. We are invited to speak, to take the photo, to show that “youth were included.” But when decisions are made, we are not sufficiently heard. Intergenerational justice is at the core of everything I do. Whether I’m co-hosting UN youth workshops, working with children’s rights experts, or speaking at the UN Climate Conference (COP), I push for a world where decisions about our future are made with us, not for us.
- You will be attending COP30 in Belém, Brazil, in November. What would you want world leaders to take forward?
The fossil fuel era has to end! Not in theory. Not someday. Now. No more pretending you can phase out emissions while approving new pipelines, signing oil deals, drilling for more. It is why I support the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. Because I am done waiting for promises. What we need is courage, not just at COP, but everywhere.
- Fighting climate change can leave people feeling overwhelmed or burned out. What keeps you motivated to continue the fight?
I carry Rosa with me every day. And I think of the people I have met — from Tuvalu, Bangladesh, Kenya — who have lost so much but keep going. They keep me going.
Burnout is real, but confronting it is also a privilege many on the frontlines don’t have.
I am a student, and like a lot of young activists, I have paid out of pocket just to be heard. Unless you are very desperate, very privileged, or just too stubborn to quit… you burn out. That is the reality, but like my South-African friend Kumi Naidoo, former director of Greenpeace and former secretary-general of Amnesty International, says: “Pessimism is a luxury we cannot afford”. And silence would cost even more.
- What is one of your actions that has been particularly impactful?
It helped to secure EU and Belgian recognition of 15 July as the Day for the Victims of the Global Climate Crisis, through Climate Justice for Rosa. What started as a silent promise of mine to all of the victims has become a Europe-wide commemoration, now supported by public events, policy discussions, and a growing number of civil society groups.
And there is the Total Criminal case. It is a criminal complaint filed in France by seven young people, including me, and three NGOs, against TotalEnergies’ top executives and shareholders. All of us have either lost loved ones or had our lives disrupted by climate disasters. We’re asking the courts to hold those responsible for fuelling this crisis accountable, not just for their emissions, but for knowingly putting lives at risk.
- Please share some tips for young people interested in fighting climate change.
Just start, wherever you are, with whatever you have. Don’t wait to be ready or perfect. You don’t have to be loud to be powerful, just honest and persistent. When I started Climate Justice for Rosa, I had no idea how to run a campaign. I just knew I couldn’t stay silent. I was scared, and I made mistakes — but I kept going.
If something feels wrong: say it. Say it clearly. Say it bravely. And say it again. And if you live in a place where it is still safe to speak out, don’t take that for granted. Use that space, not just for yourself, but for those who can’t speak. Speaking out is a risk — but so is staying silent. There is nothing easy about challenging the status quo.
You will mess up. You will feel small. People might say you are too emotional, too naive. Let them. And then prove them wrong. This movement wasn’t built by the powerful. It was built by people like you.