Youth-led climate justice
The climate crisis has victims. We refuse to let them remain invisible.
Climate Justice for Rosa is a youth-led organisation founded by Rosa’s friends after she lost her life at 15 in the 2021 European floods. We bring survivors and young people into the places where climate decisions are made, demand accountability and work to prevent more lives from being lost to climate inaction.
Why we exist
The climate crisis is not a future threat. It is taking lives right now.
People are already losing their homes, their futures and the people they love. Those who have contributed the least to the climate crisis are suffering its harshest consequences, while children and future generations will live longest with the decisions being made today.
This is not inevitable. It is the result of political choices, delayed action and a profound failure of intergenerational justice. The climate crisis is also a children’s rights crisis, threatening children’s rights to life, health, education, family, housing and a safe and healthy environment.
Climate Justice for Rosa began when Rosa’s friends came together after losing her in the 2021 floods. Benjamin was only 14 when they started. What began as a determination to ensure that Rosa would not be forgotten has grown into an international youth-led organisation bringing together survivors, young activists, scientists, artists, civil-society organisations and policymakers.
We carry Rosa’s story with us as we work to protect others from experiencing the same loss. People living with the consequences of the climate crisis must have the power to shape what happens next.
Read our storyWhat we do
From lived experience to lasting change
We refuse to accept a climate debate in which the people paying the highest price remain invisible. Led by young people, our work brings together survivor-led advocacy, children’s rights, remembrance, culture and climate accountability. We turn lived experience into political pressure because recognition must lead to action, and action must protect lives.
01
Survivor-led advocacy
We bring people directly affected by climate disasters into political discussions, international climate negotiations and accountability processes, not as symbols, but as people with knowledge, demands and the right to shape decisions.
02
Remembrance and recognition
We work to ensure that those who have lost their lives, and the communities forever changed by climate disasters, are publicly recognised and remembered.
03
Rights and accountability
We connect young activists and survivors from some of the communities most affected by the climate crisis with European policymakers. They bring not only lived experience, but vital knowledge of what their communities need. We work to ensure that this expertise shapes political and legal decisions that protect children, uphold human rights and advance intergenerational justice.
04
Art and storytelling
Through theatre, public memorials and documentary work, we make the human consequences of the climate crisis impossible to ignore.
15 July 2026 · Brussels
A permanent memorial for the victims of the climate crisis
Climate Justice for Rosa began because Rosa’s friends refused to let her become another anonymous statistic. For too long, people killed by floods, heatwaves, wildfires and other climate disasters have been reduced to numbers or forgotten altogether. We initiated and lead the project to create a permanent memorial for all victims of the global climate crisis in Brussels.
In 2026, we organised an international open call to find the artist or designer who could give the memorial its form. After reviewing the proposals, Climate Justice for Rosa and its civil-society partners selected internationally renowned landscape architect Bas Smets.
On 15 July 2026, survivors, families, policymakers and civil-society organisations gathered in Brussels to honour the victims of the global climate crisis and witness the first public presentation of the memorial concept.
That same day, the Belgian Federal Parliament held its first minute of silence for the victims of the global climate crisis.
Climate Justice for Rosa will now work with Bas Smets to design and build the memorial as a permanent place of remembrance, encounter and responsibility in Brussels’ European Quarter. We hope to complete it by July 2027.
The project is led by Climate Justice for Rosa, with the support of Greenpeace, Amnesty International, Oxfam, the Climate Coalition and Réseau Wallon de Lutte contre la Pauvreté.
“Remembering the victims is not the end of climate action. It is where climate action begins.”
Our impact
Five years of turning grief into action
Climate Justice for Rosa was founded by Rosa’s friends and continues to be led by young people. Benjamin was 14 when he began campaigning for official recognition of the victims of the climate crisis. We were told that connecting Rosa’s death to the climate crisis was too political. We kept going, convincing policymakers one by one until both the European Union and Belgium officially recognised 15 July as the Day for the Victims of the Global Climate Crisis.
Recognition matters because these deaths are not simply unavoidable tragedies. They are the human consequences of political choices and delayed action. We now carry that message into the Council of Europe, where we are an official observer, and into UN climate negotiations.
Since 2022, our founder Benjamin has represented Climate Justice for Rosa as part of the Belgian delegation at four UN Climate Change Conferences and three rounds of negotiations in Bonn. We use these spaces to connect directly affected young people with European policymakers and advocate for climate decisions grounded in children’s rights, lived experience and accountability.
Remembrance is action
Commemorating climate victims means demanding climate action.
In 2023, we projected the names of the 39 people who died in Belgium during the floods onto the buildings where political decisions are made. We wanted their names to be seen, remembered and confronted. Because honouring those we have lost also means acting to prevent more lives from being lost.
Watch the campaign film
Where we are going
Building a youth-led global movement of climate survivors
The people least responsible for the climate crisis are too often the first to lose their homes, livelihoods and loved ones. Children and young people face consequences created largely by generations before them, despite having had the least power to shape the decisions that caused this crisis. That is a profound intergenerational injustice.
Climate Justice for Rosa is developing a long-term network connecting survivors, young activists and survivor-led organisations across countries and continents. A central part of this work is connecting young activists from communities in the Global South that are among the most affected by the climate crisis, despite contributing the least to it, directly with European policymakers.
We use the relationships and access we have built within European institutions to bring their experiences, expertise and demands into the places where climate policy is shaped.
People directly affected by the climate crisis understand what their communities are facing and what they need. They should not be treated merely as people with emotional stories to share, but recognised as experts and equal partners in developing the policies and solutions intended to protect their communities.
They need solidarity, long-term support and real influence over the decisions affecting their lives and futures. By connecting them with one another and with decision-makers, we want to build collective power capable of changing policy, strengthening accountability and protecting lives.
For young people directly affected
If the climate crisis has changed your life, there is a place for you here.
You may have lost someone you love, been displaced, lost your home or seen your community changed by a flood, wildfire, heatwave, storm, drought or another climate disaster.
You do not need to be ready to share your story publicly. You can contact us simply to connect with others who understand. You can also choose to take part in our campaigns, international advocacy or the developing Global Climate Survivor Network.
You decide whether, when and how you want to be involved.
Connect with usTheatre
For Rosa / Pour Rosa
Written by Nic Balthazar and Benjamin Van Bunderen Robberechts, For Rosa tells the true story of Benjamin and Rosa, two teenagers whose lives were changed when the climate crisis suddenly became personal. Rosa did not survive the 2021 floods. Through the play, her story continues to reach thousands of young people and open conversations about grief, responsibility and the choices that can still protect lives.
Since its première in 2024, the one-person production has been performed more than 150 times and reached over 30,000 people. Available in Dutch and French, with an Italian adaptation in development, the play brings climate grief, friendship and responsibility into theatres, schools and public conversations.
Take part
Help turn recognition into change
Support our work
Help strengthen a growing organisation led by young people and support advocacy that protects children, empowers survivors and pushes decision-makers to act before more lives are lost.
Donate →Volunteer or collaborate
Contribute your time, experience or partnership to advocacy, remembrance, cultural and international projects.
Join us →Invite us to speak
Invite Climate Justice for Rosa to a school, university, civil-society event or international forum.
Contact us →No more invisible victims.
Rosa’s life cannot be brought back. But her story can help change what happens next. Stand with survivors and young people as we demand action to protect children, uphold intergenerational justice and prevent countless more families from experiencing this loss.
Support Climate Justice for Rosa