By Jean-Pierre A.
Joyce Koech, a young Kenyan climate and environment justice activist, needs no introduction within Africa’s climate action and environmental conservation community, thanks to her active participation in both global and African climate spaces.
Koech has been actively engaged in the fight for climate justice in Africa, both online and through participation in global conventions, for quite some time. In addition to her work in Mombasa, coastal Kenya, where she is involved in mangrove conservation, she has participated in climate strikes across the world and is currently a member of the Youth group – Loss and Damage Youth Coalition, an organisation that is advocating for the loss and damage fund.
Koech co-founded Blue Earth, a women- and youth-led organisation from Mombasa, coastal Kenya, that is involved in mangrove conservation and climate change awareness. This initiative was partly influenced by her lived experience as a coastal resident. “The main reason we founded it [Blue Earth] is that, living on the coast, we saw the impacts of plastics in our ocean. And so, we just started gathering young people to do something about it,” she explains.
The organisation’s co-founder said in an interview on the sidelines of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) last December that they mostly empower women because they are the most affected by the impacts of climate change. “What we do is empower women, especially women in the fishing sector, because they depend a lot on fishing, but they have not been recognised or given the capacity to improve their yields. These are people who sell small-scale fish like prawns and crabs,” she noted.
Blue Earth also raises climate awareness and educates young people about what climate change is and how they can contribute to tackling its impacts at the community level.
Mangrove conservation is one of the key activities of the environmental organisation. “We went into mangrove restoration because of the capacity of mangroves to suck in carbon,” explains the climate activist. “Mangroves suck in five to ten times more carbon than terrestrial forests.”
“We used to plant 200 or 300 mangroves, but so far we have been able to plant, I think right now it’s about 56,000+ mangroves since we started in 2021,” she revealed.
Koech is now a global champion of climate and environmental justice for Africa, through her participation in UN Climate Change Conferences (COPs), the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), and her active engagement in the Loss and Damage Fund.
Climate advocacy at UN spaces
Koech has attended the last three COPs, the global high-level forum for climate change decisions. “These climate spaces are really big, so it takes some time for you to know exactly what to do,” said the climate activist.
According to Koech, the first and second COPs were learning experiences. She was figuring out what was happening, which key sessions and events to follow, and which negotiations were most relevant, while also sticking to her niche of biodiversity conservation and climate justice.
Now, she says, she is confident and knows the right platforms for her work and advocacy. “I am able to enter into the climate space by bringing in the role of mangroves in sucking in carbon, because they play a really big role in carbon sequestration. That’s how I am able to contribute to climate conversations.”
Koech uses COP platforms to advocate for climate justice in Africa, especially for the most affected groups such as women. “As a woman and as a person coming from Africa, we know that climate justice is a really important conversation,” she says, adding, “Because climate justice means that people who have experienced the worst impacts of climate change need to be empowered, protected, and funded, kind of like calling for reparations, right?”
The young leader stressed that women have been disproportionately affected by droughts, floods, and other climate-related disasters.
“In these spaces, I call for climate justice, I call for reparations, and I also call for loss and damage. Africa and the rest of the Global South have experienced the worst impacts of climate change,” explains the climate activist.
It is not only through online advocacy and international conferences that the young Kenyan activist is making an impact; she is now playing a crucial role in the Loss and Damage Fund, which was established at COP27 in Egypt in November 2022 and later made operational at COP28 in the UAE in November 2023.
“As a youth from the Global South, I joined the Loss and Damage Youth Coalition to call on leaders to fund loss and damage,” says Koech.
Bringing African voices and youth demands to the climate fund
“People are losing their homes, and we need leaders to respond right now to loss and damage.” Koech is now actively participating in the Youth Coalition to amplify voices from the Global South. “I am the best person to speak on loss and damage because I come from a region that is already experiencing loss and damage,” she says.
Recently, the Youth Coalition at the Loss and Damage Fund posted on its Instagram page, praising the Kenyan activist for her role in advocating for climate action. “Beyond the negotiations at COP30, youth did not wait to be invited into the conversation — they created the space,” read a post by the coalition. “Youth leaders like @koech_jerotich,the Loss and Damage Youth Coalition, actively engaged through side events, actions, and grassroots conversations to bring youth demands to the forefront of the process.”
The platform continued, saying: “At COP30, Joy amplified this message clearly: climate responses must recognise the full scale of what communities are losing. Protecting ecosystems like mangroves is also about protecting memory, dignity, and ways of life. Youth advocacy continues to remind decision-makers that justice cannot be negotiated without people at the centre.”
