Listen to Mai just below or on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts.
🎤 “I had a phase where I didn’t want to be seen as a youth. With Climate Tracker, I really wanted people to take me seriously that I identified as ‘freelance writer and journalist’ rather than ‘youth climate advocate’ because I was afraid of, you know, the assumptions that people make… But recently, my engagements with UNDP Vietnam and the Youth4Climate network convinced me that, yes, I can embrace my identity again!”
🇻🇳 Mai is a climate journalist and youth advocate from Vietnam. She writes poetry about mosquitos, trains aspiring climate journalists and has coordinated the first-ever Special Report on Youth Climate Action in Vietnam with UNDP Viet Nam.
💪 She shares with us the start of her climate advocacy at 13 years old, her experience as the youngest Climate Tracker Journalism Fellow at the 24th UN Climate Change Conference (COP24) and how she’s been moving towards youth empowerment and engagement with the Youth4Climate network.
We discuss how she trained herself to become a journalist, her challenges as a youth and how she reconnected with her youth identity, and all the small moments that made a difference in her life!
This is the longest episode of Life Line so far, it’s around 2h10m, so enjoy!
❤️ TIMELINE:
6’ - Proud Saigonese writing poetry about mosquitos
16’ - Journaling, reading English literature and being the best at school
29’ - Raising her voice against the “2016 Vietnam marine life disaster”
47’ - Rising as a human-centred climate journalist
60’ - At 16, being the youngest Climate Tracker Fellow and covering COP24
74’ - Age is just a number
85’ - Accelerating youth climate action in Vietnam
92’ - Reconnecting with science at Harvard University
110’ - Being a proud Vietnamese youth climate advocate
🗒️ References:
-(Great) Article about Mai.
-First draft of the Special Report on Youth Climate Action in Vietnam.
-Connect with Mai on LinkedIn.
About UNFCCC & COP
-UNFCCC: the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat is the United Nations entity tasked with supporting the global response to the threat of climate change.
-COP: the Conference of the Parties (COP) is the supreme decision-making body of the UNFCCC.
🎧 Where to listen?
Deezer.
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