Inés Yabar – Keynote Speaker

Inés Yabar is a young activist from Peru who has been tirelessly working towards a more sustainable future since the age of 15. Before finishing school, Inés was already working as a volunteer at L.O.O.P. (Life Out Of Plastic) – a grassroots women-led Peruvian social impact company. She was prominent in beach clean-ups, collecting data, delivering speeches, and raising awareness. Inés Yabar was key in organising thousands of volunteers to help inform policies in Peru, ultimately leading to the country’s ban on single-use plastic bags.

Inés falls naturally into a leadership role. She is currently a board member of L.O.O.P. and, as lead of the UN Foundation Next Generation Fellows Program, she supports young people’s leadership in achieving the SDGs through local and global actions. She is also the Global Youth Power Manager for Restless Development and in 2021, she led the Youth Power Hacks helping young people find solutions to the Global Goals. Currently she mentors teams who are working to resolve education issues in Nigeria and India.

As well as being a leader, Inés Yabar is an incredibly effective communicator. As a young sustainability journalist, she encourages others to follow suit in voicing their ideas around sustainability. During the COVID crisis the Peruvian Government shared a lot of her work in a public education system called “Aprendo en Casa”; broadcasting her messages on national radio and television stations to educate people on environmental issues. She also hosted an event called Unlock the Future of Learning in 2022 that was adjacent to the UN Transforming Education Summit and had over 1,000 people taking part. Inés Yabar has experience as a keynote speaker at conferences having addressed, amongst others, the United Nations, UN Youth Envoy, TEDCountdown, UN SDG Action Campaign, Plan International UK and COP26.

Her fierce belief in responsible stewardship of the world has taken her to multiple COPs – from the Conference of Youth in 2014, where she served as an interpreter just ahead of the historic Paris Agreement, to being part of the Peruvian delegation at COP25 and representing the Missing Majority at COP26 and COP27.

Inés Yabar co-founded Ensemble pour TECHO (an organization working to overcome poverty in Latin America alongside organisations in Sierra Leone, France, Lebanon, and Japan to advance the 2030 agenda). She is also a member of the YOUTHTOPIA Circle of Youth, working with other global youth activists to deliver co-ordinated climate and environment masterclasses delivered in multiple different languages and open to all. She has further endeavoured to reach a wider, more diverse audience by co-founding Mullu, a podcast on sustainable development that includes Quechua, a local Peruvian language. Recognised for her proactive spirit, Inés is also a Global Shaper (Lima Hub), a Plastic Action Champion, and a member of the Global Plastic Action Partnership Advisory Committee.

Ines Yabar’s consistent leadership, activism and help for others is an inspiration to all. Her ability to communicate so effectively further enables her in motivating others to make change happen because, as she states: ‘It’s not because we cannot do everything that we should do nothing. We should always do something, anything.’