Representing UNICEF, Project Dandelion, and “large ocean states”, Lalla championed intergenerational collaboration and “hope as a new form of leadership” before global faith, policy and climate leaders.
Lalla was also the youngest person specially invited to meet Pope Leo XIV. Her address drew from personal experience after Hurricanes Irma and Maria, her children’s climate book series Svara’s Adventures, and her work mobilising Caribbean youth across faiths to treat climate action as a moral imperative.
Her presence alongside figures such as Pope Leo XIV, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Marina Silva, and Dr Katharine Hayhoe signalled a powerful shift: youth voices from vulnerable island nations are shaping global climate ethics at the highest levels.
