Youth Activist Vancouver, Canada

Lily YangLiu grew up in China, where rising temperatures, severe air pollution, and destructive floods shaped her early understanding of the climate crisis. Now based in British Columbia, Canada, she works at the intersection of education, advocacy, and international policy, advancing climate literacy and meaningful youth participation.

She is the Co-Founder of the DMUN Foundation, a fully youth- and child-led NGO that has brought hundreds of young people into global decision-making spaces. Through this work, she has supported youth delegations at the United Nations, World Bank, IMF, and other multilateral institutions, creating pathways for underrepresented voices to be heard. In 2024, Lily served as a youth negotiator at COP29, focusing on Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE), where she also spoke to ministers and CEOs about integrating education into national climate strategies.

Beyond diplomacy, Lily has one of the largest climate literacy platforms on Chinese social media, where her daily Climate News series has reached over 70 million viewers and built a community of more than 100,000 subscribers. Her content emphasizes the disproportionate impacts of climate change on marginalized communities and offers practical solutions for sustainable living.

She is also the creator of Young Environmental Leaders (YEL), a 135-hour curriculum co-developed with educators, Indigenous leaders, and scientists, and is advising her provincial government on embedding climate education across primary and secondary schools. Lily advises her provincial government on integrating climate literacy into primary and secondary schools, using YEL’s framework as a model. In recognition of her leadership, she serves on youth councils, including the Youth Climate Corps, Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, and the World Ocean Day Youth Advisory Council.