ActNowFilm: youth climate leaders in conversation with climate experts is an international youth voices in climate change project, selected to showcase at COP28. The film is based on 1-2-1 conversations between 30 pairs of youth climate leaders and world leading climate experts.
Shun Hei Lee is an MSc student specialising in Environmental Systems and Policy at ETH Zurich. He also holds a BSc degree in Environmental Policy and Economics from Wageningen University & Research. Shun Hei has a particular interest and expertise in agroecology, agri-environmental policy, and transdisciplinary research. He works as a teaching assistant for the Climate Policy course at ETH Zurich.
Beyond the classroom, Shun Hei is increasingly involved in international climate governance. He observed negotiations at SB58 in Bonn in June 2023, gaining first-hand experience in international climate negotiations. He also volunteers for the COP28 Taskforce at Swiss Youth for Climate, where he prepares essential information for Swiss youth delegates attending COP28 in Dubai.
Shun Hei’s experiences, including his involvement in circular economy projects and volunteer work at the World Fair Trade Organization, have led him to explore the concept of “Degrowth”. This idea challenges the dominance of economic growth and advocates for a democratically-led, redistributive downscaling of production and consumption in industrialised countries to achieve environmental sustainability, social justice, and well-being. For his MSc thesis, Shun Hei will analyze Swiss Agri-food policies from a Degrowth perspective. He aspires to do research on the political economy of agricultural and food policies. (Photo credit: Thomi Studhalter)
Professor Fatima Denton is the Director of the United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA). Before joining UNU-INRA, she worked with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) as Director of the largest substantive division, the Special Initiatives Division – and Coordinator of the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC).
She is an accomplished senior manager, renowned across the research and implementation branches of the UN and beyond for her in-depth knowledge of natural resource management and extensive experience in research and policy development in the African region. Fatima was Programme Leader for the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), where she managed high-impact action research, including Africa’s largest climate change adaptation research programme. She held various positions in international organisations as an energy scientist at the UNEP Risoe Centre and Programme Office at Enda Tier Monde.
The primary focus of Fatima’s research is to understand disparities in power dynamics within the context of climate change and sustainable development, with the primary objective of establishing forums that facilitate discourse on the concept of justice and just transitions.
Fatima has served as a Lead Author and Co-ordinating Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). She is currently IPCC Vice Chair for Working Group II. She is a holder of the Prince Claus Chair on Equity and Development and has been awarded an honorary professorship by the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. Fatima has written more than 50 peer-reviewed articles, reports, and books and holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Birmingham, UK. She is active on a number of advisory committees and scientific boards, including the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), the Global Economic Transformation (CGET), the Climate Change Advisory Group (CCAG), and the Earth Commission.