Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr is the mayor of Freetown, Sierra Leone, where tackling environmental degradation and climate resilience are among her priorities. That includes appointing the city’s first—and indeed, Africa’s first—Chief Heat Officer in 2021. And this year she announced the city’s first Climate Action Plan. “What we’ve done with the climate action plan is … to look more broadly at all the factors that are causing climate change, but also the effects of climate change on our daily lives and to look at how we can work together with our communities to address them,” Aki-Sawyerr said. That means collaborating with the government, NGOs, the private sector, and residents to stand up to the challenges of climate change.
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Introducing the 2024 TIME100 Next
- The Reinvention of J.D. Vance
- How to Survive Election Season Without Losing Your Mind
- Welcome to the Golden Age of Scams
- Did the Pandemic Break Our Brains?
- The Many Lives of Jack Antonoff
- 33 True Crime Documentaries That Shaped the Genre
- Why Gut Health Issues Are More Common in Women