Tackling issues of fast fashion, sustainable consumption, and empowering young people, Muhammed Dimma Mawejje’s project combines banana fibers and organic cotton with textile waste like fabric offcuts and second-hand clothes to create bags, earrings, dresses, and other fashion merchandise. The company, Mawejje Creations is based in Uganda and its profits are then used to promote his company’s social enterprises, which include teaching vulnerable young people the “hands-on skills” required for garment production.

By buying the banana-plant fibers, farmers receive extra income from what would otherwise be a waste product, and since they are processed using locally designed machines into an entirely biodegradable material, the project benefits both the community and the environment.

The city of Karachi, Pakistan is forecast to be entirely underwater in just 37 years. Namra Khalid understands that redesigning the city without fully understanding its current state and potential precarity “will only exacerbate dysfunctionality,” so she is producing the first socio-climatic map of the urban area in its entirety. This monumental task will uncover the evolution of the city through maps, and facilitate the creation of projections for its future.

Khalid's mentor is Henk Ovink is Special Envoy for International Water Affairs for the Netherlands and Sherpa for the UN 2023 Water Conference. As former advisor for President Obama’s Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, Ovink is much familiar with the impacts of extreme weather that Khalid hopes to plan for.

Mangaliso Ngcobo is an architecture student whose “eye and pen have largely been informed by Johannesburg” where he grew up. He shares a passion for art and writing with his friend and fellow student Sam Harding. Together they founded TWI ST Magazine, a biannual publication that focuses on the environment and uses art “as an operating system for engaging with a world in crisis” through articles, photo essays and more.

Anushka Shahdadpuri grew up in a refugee colony in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, where the government failed to provide basic infrastructure, and developed ambitions to help others in similar situations access WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) services. Her project, Tanki, is a novel water distribution system, harnessing rainwater to bring one million liters of water a year to public toilets in the city, which has the potential to scale and provide access to clean running water for millions of people.

This is particularly important for girls and women in India. Decentralizing the water system could also prevent residents being unjustly charged to use services that are not properly maintained.

Drawing parallels between hot money and financial liquidity, and the warm, wet climate of the tropics, Alfonse Chiu’s Thermotropicana is a long-term art and research project that plots the pathways of capital in and out of the tropical regions. The writer, artist, and curator – who is also the founder of the Centre for Urban Mythologies – has so far produced several “chapters” of their project, including Glossaries for Unwritten Knowledges, an exhibition exploring the survival of indigenous culture in Malaysia, in collaboration with local non-profit GERMIS and indigenous practitioners.

Another chapter, Fruit Atlas, is a knowledge-sharing and production platform that imagines and tests how alliances within the tropics could occur, taking inspiration from the circulation of tropical fruits. As part of the Young Climate Prize, Alfonse is being mentored by MoMA’s senior curator Paola Antonelli.

Hannah Segerkrantz, a product designer from Estonia, is exploring how to use the CO2-absorbing material hempcrete as a design tool.

Segerkrantz has so far been examining the unique properties of hempcrete at furniture scale, using fabric to create formwork for pouring and setting the hempcrete, and combining volumes into a variety of different forms. She then shares her own instruction manual “Hemp-it-Yourself”, so that others can create her designs, creating an open-source library accessible to anyone that empowers a network of global makers.

As part of the Young Climate Prize, Hannah is receiving mentorship from Wael Al Awar. Wael is a co-founder and principal architect at waiwai. Waiwai presented their innovative material research project WETLAND that shows radical alternatives to concrete at The World Around Summit 2021.

After 24-year-old Joseph Nguthiru’s boat became caught in water hyacinths in the middle of Lake Naivasha, Kenya, he began to devise and experiment with solutions to combat the wider issues caused by this aquatic plant – which blocks waterways used for trade and transport, and damages ecosystems.

Through his project HyaPak, Joseph decided to tackle two pressing issues at the same time by creating a biodegradable alternative to plastic using hyacinths. Joseph is being mentored by Jan Boelen, a curator of design, architecture, and contemporary art, and artistic director of Atelier LUMA.

Pamela EA is a documentary photographer and explorer from México who focuses on gender equality and climate justice, and aims to increase accessibility to literacy in the evolving field of climate education through her work. She is a co-founder of Climate Words, a growing database of climate lexicon and images, which was created to demystify the conversation around climate justice. With a focus on design and storytelling, the project bridges the gap in climate knowledge, facilitating learning and inspiring new climate advocates to take action.

David Andrés Vega Monsalve, from Bogotá, Colombia, has created an immersive digital environment in which a user can experience first-hand the potential devastation caused by extreme weather. Wearing a headset, they are placed in areas of Pakistan shown as they exist today; then shown imagery that depicts how these same locations might look in the future after being ravaged by catastrophic climate events.

As one of our 25 under 25s, David is being mentored by Camila Marambio, a self described “curator, private investigator, permaculture enthusiast, amateur dancer, and collaborative writer”. In 2010, she founded the research programme, Ensayos, based on the archipelago of Karokynka/ Tierra del Fuego

The acidification of the Mediterranean Sea has led to a decrease of fish in the area. For cities like Port Said in Egypt, that depends on the fishing industry, this is not only a climatic disaster but also an economic one.

When architecture student Moemen Sobh, whose family have been fishing in Port Said for generations, discovered that tonnes of fish “waste” was thrown to the Mediterranean Sea every year, he considered turning the unwanted fish skins into something useful. This led to the creation of “Visenleer”, a fish-skin leather that makes use of this byproduct and allows fishermen to make more money per fish sold. Sobh’s vision for this biomaterial ranges from producing clothing items to tents. He also uses the project to teach school and university students about sustainability goals and best practices. Nelly Ben Hayoun is Sobh’s mentor, an artist and experience designer based in London. Among her diverse achievements are the foundation of NASA’s International Space Orchestra, and collaborations with the likes of Noam Chomsky and Kid Cudi. In 2022, Nelly launched the Tour De Moon – a lunar-inspired programme of live events and immersive experiences all across the UK.

oung Climate Prize finalist from Nigeria, Stanley Anigbogu, created a system that recycles e-waste into solar-powered lighting solutions when combined with locally sourced materials and called it LightEd. LightEd’s program “The Light for Peace” has already provided over 22,000 internally displaced refugees and 500 students with clean energy sources to replace kerosene lamps and candles.

This access to consistent light has huge social and economic benefits: enabling students to extend their working hours, small business owners to lengthen their trading hours, and making rural areas more safe and accessible.

Supporting Anigbogu as a mentor is Harry Pearce. Pearce is a graphic designer, artist, and Pentagram partner. Pentagram is an independently owned design studio, where the 22 partners are the owners and the creators of the work. Pearce has worked on design identities for clients as diverse as Liberty, Thames & Hudson, Abu Dhabi cultural quarter, and Pink Floyd.

Nastia Volynova interrogates the modes through which work can be made more equitable beyond nation-state systems through her Terra-Collar Work project, which spans the fields of economics, design, environmentalism, and infrastructure. The project has grown to acknowledge all of the different actors that contribute to the maintenance of current systems of work, and has come to a necessary intersection with the climate emergency.

Based in Russia, Volynova’s work has been exhibited in Amsterdam, Cambridge, Glasgow, Lisbon, London, and Venice among others. Her project manifests itself as workshops, lectures, seminars, and other collaborative modes of sharing knowledge.

As part of the Young Climate Prize, Nastia will receive mentorship from Carson Chan, the inaugural director of MoMA’s Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and Natural Environment.

in Gao, originally from China, gathered research on bees in high-altitude Bogotá, and used his findings to design a low-cost monitor that can be installed into a standard beehive. This allows beekeepers to perform remote inspections, rather than causing disruption to the hives prematurely, and maintain the health of the species. Alongside the monitoring system, Gao suggests environmental improvements to the hives, including how some can be insulated to help raise survival rates of their inhabitants in a changing ecosystem.

Alder Keleman Saxena is Gao’s mentor during the three month period of the Young Climate Prize. Alder is an environmental anthropologist who carries out similar work that Gao has spearheaded with SmartHive, drawing connections between locally specific ethnobotanical and biocultural practices and larger political-economic contexts. Alder is a co- editor of Feral Atlas: the More-Than-Human Anthropocene @feralatlas who participated in The World Around Summit 2021.

Originally in local schools and campuses around India, Sahithi Radha and her team hold “awareness sessions” to educate students about the dangers of electronic waste. In collaboration with recycling partners, they also safely recycle and refurbish items collected from these sessions, as part of her project E-Cycl.

Sahithi is being mentored by Cyra Levenson, the Guggenheim’s deputy director and head of Education and Public Engagement Department. Through this role, Cyra aims to reach out to a broad audience through programming, content development, academic partnerships and community.

At age 12, Joshua Keghnen Ichor, now an innovator and Geoscientist, became seriously ill with Typhoid Fever, a disease caused by water scarcity and pollution that almost took his life. He now dedicates his practice in Nigeria to developing technologies that could help prevent these issues, which are ever-more prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa’s rural communities as a result of climate change.

Ichor will receive mentorship from Max Fraser, an independent design commentator who works across books, magazines, exhibitions, video, and events to broaden the conversation around contemporary design. Fraser is the author of multiple design books and contributes articles to a wide variety of publications around the world.

Esther Oluwabunmi Olalude is the CEO of Venille @venille_ ,a company that is tackling both period poverty and sustainable product development in Nigeria. She has created an affordable and biodegradable alternative to traditional sanitary pads which feature an absorbent core derived from a wool-like material made from broken-down banana stems.

As part of the Young Climate Prize, Esther is receiving mentorship from Etta Madete. Etta is a Nigerian architect and the founder of BuildX Studio and BuildHer Collective; through them Madete advocates for the sustainable use of cross-laminated timber and encourages women into the world of construction, design and questions of land ownership.

In Indonesia, where the government is failing to seriously discuss plans for a future in danger of disappearing because of climate change, Raihan Rabbannee Hendrawan is utilizing creative storytelling and a passion for climate justice to educate his peers through his project Ketika Kita Muda (When We Were Young).

Raihan is mentored by Emma Osore, founding member of BlackSpace, an urbanist collective formed of Black planners, architects, artists and designers. Raihan is also participating in The World Around´s Design Academy, an ongoing series of exclusive workshops for our Young Climate Prize finalists.

Aida Namukose “fell into climate storytelling by mistake,” yet beautifully documents the lives of women in Uganda most affected by the impacts of climate change through photography. Pairing words and imagery, she illustrates the stories of women in the food industry, aiming to combat the “lack of empowerment” among these communities of women by sharing their experiences through her art. This photo-journalistic approach uncovered stories of community resilience that would otherwise go untold.

As part of the Young Climate Prize program, Aida is mentored by José Esparza Chong Cuy, a curator, writer, and architect from Mexico, currently serving as the Executive Director and Chief Curator at Storefront for Art and Architecture.

Gabriela Angelina Bernal Ibáñez has an innate passion for change within the building industry, and full confidence that her self-started project, Gama has the potential to revolutionize the way we build and develop. Through one-on-one mentorship sessions Gabriela is receiving guidance from architects Antón Garcia Abril and Débora Mesa, founders of Ensamble, who participated in The World Around’s 2021 summit. Their work innovates typologies, technologies and methodologies to address issues as diverse as the construction of the landscape or the prefabrication of the house; this innovative spirit is shared with their mentee. We are proud to connect Gabriela and Ensamble for the Young Climate Prize.

Countering the statistical numbness of conversations surrounding the climate crisis, Aziba Ekio provides a vivid portrait of the “subtle, emotional, and social effects” of climate change on the Nigerian population through her writing. Her locality, Abuja, is already facing the effects of global warming that the majority of the global North is yet to see, and her poem anthology, the color, Green, is her “contribution to the fight for climate action.” As part of the 25 under 25, Aziba is receiving mentorship from architect Sumayya Vally, founder and director of Counterspace.

Covalence (now Covalence Global @covalenceglobal ), is the brainchild of Sophia Tabibian and Lulu Goulet-Hofsass, who began with a group of 10 picking up 500 pounds of trash. Learning more about the scale of the climate crisis, Tabibian then considered how to connect those leading important work in their local areas to foster a global community. Covalence Global has since built “covalent bonds” with youth leaders on five continents.

The group recently held a three-day virtual conference, where 10 youth speakers and three climate-focused organizations discussed myriad climate-related issues. Next, the network is developing a Young Climate Change Curriculum, with the view to increase climate literacy around the globe. A chapter program also honors the work of Covalence San Francisco, and allows local youths to continue organizing events.

Sophia and Lulu are being mentored by the iconic designer Bruce Mau, a former speaker at The World Around who has worked as a designer, innovator, educator and author on a broad spectrum of projects.

Foday David Kamara, one of our 25 under 25s, uses plastic extrusion technology to transform waste into bricks and paving tiles, reducing reliance on imported cement bricks. This aspect alone boosts inbuilt resilience in a community that can rely on itself for building materials, as well as addressing the environmental issues caused by post-consumer plastic waste and unsustainable building materials. Ecovironment, Foday´s project, has so far created 60 jobs, recycled 460 tonnes of plastics, and used its profits to feed 1,500 school children.

Faced with dire unemployment during the Covid-19 pandemic, young people from Shariffa Amolo Anguria’s village in Kenya turned to gold- mining jobs, which led to mercury and cyanide exposure and mass deforestation in the area. So she founded Gold 4 Climate Action, in partnership with Rising to Greatness, a female-led community organization where she acts as an outreach officer. As part of the Young Climate Prize, Shariffa is attending The World Around´s Design Academy, a series of workshops designed to support the process of the cohort.

In Tierra del Fuego, at the southern tip of South America, there's only one garbage processing plant, no recycling facilities, and voracious winds that regularly exceed 62mph. This means that plastic waste, much of which is carried there by ocean currents from other countries and deposited on the shore, ends up being blown all over the picturesque island. Marilita Quintana Molina, from the indigenous Selk'nam community, collects this waste and uses it in her art to shed light on the magnitude of this issue.

“To clean up nature is to clean up our home,” she says. As part of the Young Climate Prize, Marilita is being mentored by Abraham Cruzvillegas, a visual artist from Mexico. Since 2007, he has produced a body of work he calls “autoconstrucción”. Taking inspiration from his hometown, a village built through collaborative construction with recycled and found materials, Cruzvillage’s sculptural installations are often playfully composed from inexpensive materials.