Kehkashan Basu

Iconic youth leader, global influencer, environmentalist, champion of children’s rights, a Forbes 30 Under 30, TEDx speaker, Climate Reality Mentor, author, musician, peace, and sustainability campaigner, and a passionate advocate of women’s rights, 20-year-old Kehkashan Basu is a trailblazer who has been challenging the status quo and breaking social strictures and taboos which impede the progress and rights of future generations. Winner of the 2016 International Children’s Peace Prize for her work on children's rights and the environment, and the first-ever Voices Youth Gorbachev-Shultz Legacy Award for her work on nuclear disarmament, Kehkashan is a tireless advocate for the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

She is a United Nations Human Rights Champion, National Geographic Young Explorer, and the youngest ever Global Coordinator for the UN Environment Program’s Major Group for Children & Youth. She was named the youngest recipient of Canada's Top25 Women of Influence, one of Canada's Top 100 Most Powerful Women and is the Council Lead of the Toronto-St. Paul's Constituency Youth Council. Kehkashan is the Founder President of the social innovation enterprise Green Hope Foundation, which provides over 140,000 young people in 25 countries a networking platform to engage in the sustainable development process and take actions to mitigate climate change. Her internationally acclaimed work on sustainability has resulted in her being named one of the Top 100 SDG Leaders in the world and one of the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada. She is the youngest member of Canada’s Women in Renewable Energy forum and the youngest Councillor of the World Future Council. She has just been elected to the Board of Trustees of the Parliament of the World's Religions, making her, at 20 years old, the youngest trustee in its 127-year history.

Kehkashan is a 2020 L'Oreal Paris Women of Worth Honouree, and the recipient of the 2019 Innovator of the Year Award for Sustainability Education, the John Muir Conservation Award for Habitat Restoration, the Energy Globe Award, the Turner Prize for Social Change, the Lewis Perinbam Impact and Innovation Award, and the Women Super Achiever Award. A powerful voice for future generations, she has spoken at over 200 United Nations and other global fora across 25 countries.