Edie Lush
Award-Winning Journalist & Event MC | Executive Editor, Hub Culture | Bloomberg TV Correspondent | Yale & UCLA | Communication Coach
Elizabeth Wathuti
Founder, Green Generation Initiative | TIME100 Climate 2025 | TIME100 Impact Award | Commissioner, Global Commission on the Economics of Water | OGW
Elizabeth Wathuti is one of Africa's most powerful climate voices: a Kenyan environmentalist, founder of the Green Generation Initiative, TIME100 Climate 2025 honoree, and recipient of the TIME100 Impact Award. Her four-minute address to over 100 heads of state at COP26 became one of the defining moments of that conference. She speaks from lived experience of climate injustice with a moral authority that few figures anywhere in the world can match.
Want to book Elizabeth Wathuti as a speaker for your event? Please provide the info below and we’ll get in touch within 24h:
Elizabeth Wathuti biography
Elizabeth Wanjiru Wathuti is one of Africa’s most recognized and morally compelling climate voices. Born in Kiandu village in Nyeri County, Kenya, she grew up in a region with one of the country’s richest tree canopies, developing a deep relationship with the natural world from childhood. That relationship became activism in secondary school, where she revived her environmental club and began tracking rainfall patterns and climate trends using the school’s weather station. By the time she graduated from Kenyatta University with a BA in Environmental Studies and Community Development, she had a clear sense of what she was going to do.
As a climate speaker, Wathuti founded the Green Generation Initiative in 2016 — an organization that nurtures young Kenyans to love nature and become environmentally conscious through practical climate and environmental education, tree planting, and community-led restoration. The Initiative has planted over 30,000 trees across Kenya, worked with thousands of schools to grow indigenous fruit trees that boost both ecosystem health and community food security, and launched the Africa’s Next Green Leaders Accelerator (ANGLE) program with funding from the Scottish Government, which supports young people across the continent to develop disruptive climate solutions.
Wathuti is the youngest presidential appointee in Kenya, serving as a Commissioner at the Nairobi Rivers Commission representing civil society and youth. She is also a Commissioner on the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, contributing to global research on water as a common good and the economics of its protection and equitable distribution. She serves on the Counties Advisory Committee for the Upper Tana Nairobi Water Fund and leads the Wangari Maathai Foundation’s Youth Hub, continuing the legacy of the late Nobel Peace Prize laureate whose work on trees, democracy, and women’s rights in Kenya inspired a generation of African environmentalists.
COP26, the TIME100, and a Voice That Has Moved the World
In November 2021, Wathuti was invited as one of the very few youth activists to address the World Leaders’ Summit at COP26 in Glasgow. Her four-minute speech — delivered directly to over 100 heads of state, opening with “I need you to open your hearts” — became one of the most shared and discussed moments of the conference. She told world leaders about the 2 million Kenyans facing climate-related starvation as both rainy seasons failed, asked them to feel the weight of that reality, and implored them to act at the pace and scale the crisis demands. The speech has been viewed and shared millions of times globally and is widely described as one of the most powerful moments in the history of the COPs.
She has since spoken at the Africa Climate Summit, the UN Climate and Clean Air Conference at UNEA6, the World Economic Forum, and COP29 in Baku. In 2023 she received the TIME100 Impact Award in Singapore. In 2025, TIME named her to its inaugural TIME100 Climate list of the 100 most influential climate figures in the world. She holds the Order of the Grand Warrior of Kenya (OGW) and the Head of State Commendation (HSC) for her leadership in environmental conservation. She was also named the 2023 Amnesty International Chair at the University of Ghent.
As a speaker, Elizabeth Wathuti brings to every stage something that no policy framework or data presentation can replicate: the lived reality of what the climate crisis means for communities on the front lines, told with a moral authority, emotional honesty, and personal courage that consistently moves audiences at the highest levels of global power. Contact Aurum Speakers Bureau to book Elizabeth Wathuti for your next event.
Elizabeth Wathuti Speaking Videos
Elizabeth Wathuti at #COP26
Elizabeth Wathuti: I don't hope - I love: A journey of climate action
Elizabeth Wathuti Keynote Topics
Wathuti's most requested keynote takes its name from the opening line of her landmark COP26 speech, delivered to more than 100 heads of state in Glasgow. She shares what the climate crisis looks, feels, and tastes like in communities on the front lines — including the 2 million Kenyans who faced climate-related starvation in 2021 as both rainy seasons failed — and asks audiences with power and resources to let that reality in fully, before making any argument about what they should do about it. She examines the gap between the political commitments made in international climate forums and the lived experience of the communities most affected by their absence, and closes with what she has learned, across years of advocacy with world leaders, about what actually moves people from awareness to action. One of the most emotionally honest and intellectually rigorous keynotes available anywhere on the climate circuit.
The Green Generation Initiative grew from one young woman in Nyeri County to an organization that has planted 30,000 trees, worked in thousands of schools across Kenya, and launched a continent-wide program for young climate innovators. In this keynote, Wathuti examines what she has learned about how change actually happens at the community level, why locally led solutions are consistently more resilient and more effective than top-down programs, and what the international community systematically gets wrong when it tries to "support" grassroots climate action. She presents a framework for how governments, corporations, and international institutions can genuinely partner with community-led initiatives rather than inadvertently undermining them.
The communities contributing least to global greenhouse gas emissions are bearing the most severe and immediate consequences of climate breakdown. Wathuti has spent her career making this argument not as an abstract principle but as a specific, documented reality — in Kenya, across Africa, and across the Global South. In this keynote she examines what climate justice requires in practice: the funding flows, technology transfers, loss and damage frameworks, and governance structures that are necessary for a genuinely just transition. She draws on her work at the Nairobi Rivers Commission, the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, and multiple COPs to present a clear-eyed account of the current gap between climate justice commitments and climate justice reality.
As a Commissioner on the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, Wathuti has contributed to landmark research on what it would mean to govern water as a global common good rather than a commodity or a national resource. In this keynote she presents the interconnection between the climate crisis and the global water crisis — how changing rainfall patterns, glacial melt, and extreme weather events are destabilizing the water systems that billions of people depend on — and examines the economic, governance, and justice arguments for a fundamentally different approach to how water is valued, priced, protected, and shared. A keynote for audiences in finance, policy, infrastructure, and water-intensive industries who need to understand the water dimension of the climate transition.
Speaker topics
FAQs on Booking Elizabeth Wathuti
Why Elizabeth Wathuti?
Booking Elizabeth Wathuti means giving your audience access to one of the most powerful and morally credible voices in the global climate conversation. She is not a policy analyst or a corporate sustainability expert. She is a Kenyan environmentalist who has spent her life in communities directly bearing the consequences of a crisis they did not cause, who addressed more than 100 heads of state at COP26 with a speech that moved the room and circled the world, and who has since been recognized by TIME as one of the 100 most influential climate figures on the planet. Her keynotes do what very few others can: they make the climate crisis feel real, urgent, and personal, at the same time as they offer a framework for what genuine, justice-centered action looks like. Contact Aurum Speakers Bureau to check availability and fees.
What is the Green Generation Initiative?
The Green Generation Initiative (GGI) is the organization Elizabeth Wathuti founded in 2016 to nurture environmental consciousness and climate action among young Kenyans. Its core work combines tree planting — with over 30,000 trees planted across Kenya, including indigenous fruit trees at thousands of schools — with practical climate and environmental education, community restoration projects, and youth leadership development. The Initiative has expanded to include the Africa's Next Green Leaders Accelerator (ANGLE), a program funded by the Scottish Government that supports young people across Africa to develop and launch disruptive climate solutions, with participants working on projects ranging from turning cactus into biogas and fertilizer to community water management systems.
What did Elizabeth Wathuti say at COP26?
At the World Leaders' Summit of COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021, Wathuti delivered a four-minute address to over 100 heads of state that began with the words "I need you to open your hearts." She described the lived reality of climate breakdown in Kenya — including the 2 million Kenyans facing climate-related starvation as both rainy seasons of that year had failed — and asked world leaders to allow themselves to feel the full weight of that reality before deciding how to act. She told them that the urgency she was asking for could only come from deep within them, and that the words and commitments they made in that room would determine whether communities like hers had a future. The speech has been viewed and shared millions of times and is widely described as one of the most powerful moments in COP history.
What topics does climate speaker Elizabeth Wathuti cover?
Elizabeth Wathuti speaks on the human face of climate justice and what front-line communities are experiencing, youth-led climate action and grassroots solutions, the economics and governance of water as a global common good, what genuine partnership between international institutions and local communities looks like, and the gap between international climate commitments and the pace of action required. She speaks in English and Swahili and presents to audiences at international policy forums, corporate leadership events, sustainability conferences, educational institutions, and major public events. Aurum Speakers Bureau can advise on the right topic for your event and provide full details on Elizabeth Wathuti's speaking fees and availability.
How to book Elizabeth Wathuti as a keynote speaker?
Aurum Speakers Bureau can help you book Elizabeth Wathuti as a speaker for your next event, conference, or board meeting. Simply fill out our contact form to inquire about Elizabeth Wathuti's availability for a speaking engagement. One of our booking agents will respond to your request immediately and contact the speaker to let them know you want to hire them. We will assist you with obtaining speaking fees, booking information, and confirming availability for Elizabeth Wathuti or any other top keynote speaker or celebrity of your choice.
How much is Elizabeth Wathuti speaking fee?
Elizabeth Wathuti speaking fees are determined by several factors, including the event's date, whether it's a virtual or in-person event, the duration, format, preparation required for their speech, and more. The same applies to the cost to hire any other top expert speakers and celebrities. The Speaker Fee Range listed on our website is simply a guideline and is subject to change without notice. If you would like to hire Elizabeth Wathuti to deliver a keynote speech for your event, please fill out the contact form or email us at info@aurumbureau.com with as much detail as possible. One of our experienced agents will get in touch with you and let you know exactly how much it will cost to book Elizabeth Wathuti.
How can I contact Elizabeth Wathuti?
We only work with Elizabeth Wathuti on paid speaking engagements. Aurum Speakers Bureau can assist you in booking Elizabeth Wathuti and will handle all negotiations, contracts, and logistics associated with having Elizabeth Wathuti speak at your event. We will be your sole point of contact throughout the process. Get in touch with Aurum Speakers Bureau today, and we will reach out to any motivational speaker or celebrity you want to enquire about speaking at your event. If you wish to contact Elizabeth Wathuti for any other reason, we will be unable to assist you as we are not authorized to provide personal contact information.
Can I book Elizabeth Wathuti for a virtual keynote?
Yes, Elizabeth Wathuti is available for virtual keynotes and webinars. To book Elizabeth Wathuti for a virtual event, please complete the contact form or send us an email to inquire about the special fees for virtual engagements.
