Dominique Palmer

Dominique Palmer (born 1999) is a British climate justice activist, speaker and author. She is of Jamaican, American and British heritage and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

She began her activism during the Fridays for Future school strike for climate movement and has advocated for intersectional climate action and slow fashion through music, media and policy.

Palmer has spoken at major climate events and has encouraged young people to "act with urgency and hope" as part of her focus on eco-anxiety. She also advocates for a concept that she calls "climate joy".

Early life and activism Palmer grew up in London before studying political science and international relations at the University of Birmingham. Her dissertation was on the intersection of climate change and gender, with a focus on how interconnected identities shape experiences of climate justice.

She has described how her activism was initiated by witnessing the impact of air pollution on her community in South London and through visits to Jamaica, where she observed the effects of rising sea levels on a country that "had contributed little to the climate crisis".

While at university, she became a UK Student Climate Network organiser of the September 2019 school strike for climate. She also participated in the #ClimateStrikeOnline campaign during the COVID-19 pandemic and represented Extinction Rebellion Youth on a panel at the 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Madrid.

Climate joy and eco-anxiety Palmer has developed a concept she calls "climate joy", which she describes as a framework for activists to "build hope, resilience and hold on to joy" whilst engaged in climate work, arguing that joy is "sustainable" in a way that fear and anxiety are not. She has applied this framing in her political advocacy activities – such as encouraging MPs to support the Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill in 2021 and the Climate and Nature Bill in 2024 – and opposing UK Government bills such as the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill.

She co-led the campaign #CleanUpStandardChartered with other Fridays For Future organisers, and called on the company's CEO to "stop fueling the climate crisis". Through the same group, she also lobbied US President Joe Biden and US Vice-President Kamala Harris, writing that "women, children, indigenous peoples, people of color [and the] most historically marginalised are the most impacted by the climate crisis".

Palmer appeared on a panel at a 350.org event alongside author Naomi Klein and novelist Amitav Ghosh, discussing climate and COVID-19 recovery and she co-developed a youth ocean and climate manifesto with Surfers Against Sewage ahead of the charity's World Oceans Day summit.

Palmer is an ambassador for Zero Hour and for Reboot the Future, is an advocate for the #StopRosebank campaign,

Intersectionality focus As part of her focus on the intersectional nature of the climate crisis, Palmer took part in a New York Times COP26 Hub event with Emma Watson at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow. Speaking alongside activists Malala Yousafzai and Greta Thunberg, she discussed the links between people and the exploitation of natural resources.

Palmer is a founding member of the Youth Climate Justice Fund and serves on its steering committee. She is also an organiser with the UK Black Ecofeminist Collective and has been a member of the UN Women Feminist Coalition for Climate Justice through Fridays for Future. Palmer views ecofeminism as a way to "explore the connection of oppression of women, the patriarchy and climate breakdown", and has said that gender inequality has forced women to bear the brunt of the climate crisis more so than men "as a result of resource allocation, labour divisions and representation in decision-making spaces".

Music and activism Palmer uses music and the arts in her climate activism. She is a coordinator of Climate Live, an international youth-led climate education initiative which organises concerts to raise awareness about climate action. In a 2021 Ecologist article about this project, she said that "the race to safeguard the future of this planet has begun. We're not only fighting for our futures, but against the present crisis, [for] those already suffering. We need ambitious systemic change that places people and the planet at [its] heart".

In 2022, she recorded a song for Earth Day with singer Titiyo – ahead of hosting a panel at Billie Eilish's Overheated Live climate-focused event. At the time, Palmer said that "the climate crisis threatens our communities, the air we breathe, animals, and the beautiful planet we inhabit. We must act to safeguard our futures and those already on the frontlines".

She has presented on the importance of the arts for climate action at the Barbican Centre and delivered a workshop with Live Out for the Grammy Museum as part of a #BeyondTheMainstage initiative. She has also spoken at the 2021 Reading Festival and the 2023 Sziget Festival.

Other roles Palmer co-founded the Pass The Mic initiative in 2020 with Tori Tsui and Elijah McKenzie-Jackson, a campaign asking influential figures, brands and organisations to "turn the spotlight on to frontline climate activists and those most affected by the crisis".

She has also been linked to the youth council of the communications hub New Zero World, the climate committee of the climate tech platform Ecologi, and the Global Choices network, Arctic Angels.

Alongside Megan McCubbin, Palmer featured in the documentary film Sea, Land and City, which explores biodiversity in urban environments. She co-created an online course on sustainability and climate activism, hosted on the FutureLearn platform, and was named a judge for the 2026 Country & Town House "Future Icons" awards.

Media Palmer is a contributing editor for the Instagram platform "@feminist" and has written for the magazine, Shado. Her support for slow travel has been referenced in Vogue, and her advocacy on slow fashion has been reported in The Times. Palmer also appeared on the podcast Connect to Nature to discuss sustainable fashion. and also by Sky News on the COP26 summit protests in Glasgow.

She took part in a UCL Health of the Public podcast with Xand van Tulliken to discuss the links between climate change and public health – as well as the BBC Sounds series If You Don't Know – and Ed Miliband's Reasons to be Cheerful podcast, where she spoke about her vision for tackling the climate crisis.

Recognition Palmer was awarded a 2023 Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation "Planetary Health Award" and said, on receiving the prize, that her activism focuses on "making sure that marginalised and frontline communities at the heart of [climate] action are listened to and included". Hans-Otto Pörtner and Ecovative Design were also recipients that year.

She was also honoured as a "Young Leader" at the Eco Age "Green Carpet Fashion Awards" in 2023, and has been recognised as one of the leading UK environmentalists by Forbes. BBC Radio 1Xtra has also praised her as a "Future Figure".