--- title: Elizabeth Wathuti: The 100 Most Influential Climate Leaders of 2025 description: Find out why Elizabeth Wathuti is on TIME's 2025 list of the 100 most influential leaders driving business climate action. canonical: https://time.com/collections/time-100-climate-2025/7326596/elizabeth-wathuti/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-10-30T11:30:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-03T02:30:18.107Z article:section: Climate og:title: Elizabeth Wathuti: The 100 Most Influential Climate Leaders of 2025 og:description: Find out why Elizabeth Wathuti is on TIME's 2025 list of the 100 most influential leaders driving business climate action. og:url: https://time.com/collections/time-100-climate-2025/7326596/elizabeth-wathuti/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt74b89f06cada03e1/6998caf6c8dcb4d4c5b5096b/Defenders-Elizabeth-Wathuti.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Elizabeth Wathuti: The 100 Most Influential Climate Leaders of 2025 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Elizabeth Wathuti: The 100 Most Influential Climate Leaders of 2025 twitter:description: Find out why Elizabeth Wathuti is on TIME's 2025 list of the 100 most influential leaders driving business climate action. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt74b89f06cada03e1/6998caf6c8dcb4d4c5b5096b/Defenders-Elizabeth-Wathuti.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Oct 30, 2025 # Elizabeth Wathuti Founder and CEO, Green Generation Initiative by Elizabeth Wathuti  Photo-Illustration by TIME (Source Photo: Jonas Roosens—AFP/Getty Images) _Elizabeth Wathuti is the founder of the Green Generation Initiative (GGI), one of the fastest-growing youth-led, climate-focused organizations in Africa. It showcases the impact of locally led solutions such as restoration and community climate resilience efforts like planting and nurturing indigenous fruit trees at thousands of Kenyan schools, which boosted ecosystem health and community food security. With funding from the Scottish Government_[ _this September_](https://www.gov.scot/news/support-for-youth-climate-activists/)_, she will help grow Africa’s Next Green Leaders Accelerator_ [_(ANGLE) program_](https://greengenerationinitiative.org/event/angle-africas-next-green-leaders-accelerator/)_, which prompts young people across the continent to launch disruptive climate solutions, like turning cactus into biogas and fertilizer._ **What is a climate solution that isn't getting the attention or funding it deserves?** Without urgent action to protect water sources, the climate crisis will only intensify. Right now, our water systems are under pressure. Yet local solutions by communities who are aiming to restore or protect the sources of water, especially the ecosystems and catchments where water flows from, still remain underfunded. When we secure access to clean, safe water, we guarantee food security, stimulate economic growth, create job opportunities, and ensure human dignity for all. Water scarcity increases vulnerability to droughts, floods, heatwaves, and wildfires, fueling hunger, displacement, conflict, and economic loss. Our level of ambition and action towards responding to the water crisis needs to match the gravity of the crisis. **What gives you hope about the future of the planet?** What gives me hope is seeing how one spark can light countless others. Knowing that the work we do is touching lives, improving livelihoods, and inspiring people to do more keeps me grounded and grateful. When I see children nurturing the fruit trees we planted and eating nutritious fruits from school gardens that now enrich their meals, or young people starting their own initiatives and being able to scale their innovations because they saw what’s possible, I’m reminded that real change grows through inspiration and leading by example. Hope lives in those moments when people realize they, too, have power—when a young girl believes her hands can heal the earth, or when a community unites to protect the water that sustains them. Knowing that my work stirs others to act gives me faith that humanity’s capacity for care and regeneration is far stronger than the crises we face. **If you could stand up and talk to world leaders at the next COP, what would you say?** It’s time for honesty and accountability. Thirty COPs later, we must ask ourselves: what has truly changed for the people on the frontlines? For the women, the youth, and the communities most impacted by the climate crisis who have been restoring lands, protecting rivers, and growing hope long before the cameras arrived? We cannot keep looking too far for solutions when they exist in the hands of those who have already been healing our planet while trying to build their own resilience to the climate crisis. The question is not what more can we promise, but how boldly can we scale what is already working. If we truly mean to deliver climate justice, then let us invest in trust—in communities, in local innovators, and in young people who are proving every day that transformation is possible. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time-100-climate-2025/7326596/elizabeth-wathuti/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time-100-climate-2025/7326596/elizabeth-wathuti/"},"headline":"Elizabeth Wathuti","datePublished":"2025-10-30T11:30:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T02:30:18.107Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/time-100-climate-2025/7326596/elizabeth-wathuti/","keywords":["TIME100 Climate 2025","list","franchise","Magazine","Special Project","sponsorshipblock","Accolades"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt74b89f06cada03e1/6998caf6c8dcb4d4c5b5096b/Defenders-Elizabeth-Wathuti.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"Climate","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt74b89f06cada03e1/6998caf6c8dcb4d4c5b5096b/Defenders-Elizabeth-Wathuti.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/climate/","name":"Climate"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time100-climate-2025/","name":"TIME100 Climate 2025"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time-100-climate-2025/7326596/elizabeth-wathuti/","name":"Elizabeth Wathuti"}}]}] ```