She is 13, has travelled to 15 countries to attend 30 international conferences on environment, sustainability and conservation. Meet Kehkashan Basu, the youngest global coordinator of the United Nations Environment Programme’s youth wing.

The Dubai resident with roots in Calcutta was in New York recently to address the 12th United Nations Youth Assembly, where Malala Yousafzai was one of the speakers. “I spoke at the closing ceremony and also attended a dialogue session with the UN secretary general. It was a fantastic experience for me and an honour to be the youngest participant ever,” the Class VIII student told Metro over phone.

If addressing over 800 global youth leaders was a dream come true for Kehkashan, so was listening to her inspiration, Malala. “Malala spoke on her 16th birthday, as part of the UN Secretary General’s Global Education First Initiative Programme. I followed her speech live on the UN webcast. She was absolutely inspirational.”

In her speech at the UN, Kehkashan iterated Malala’s view that education is the most powerful weapon. “I iterated her demand of “putting every child in school”. A child’s right to education, without any gender bias, must be the foremost sustainable development goal,” said the feisty teenager who was nominated for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) elections by a Canadian organisation, TakingIT Global last year.

“UNEP has nine major groups, Children and Youth being one of them. There are several UNEP-accredited organisations in each group. Every two years, elections are held for global coordinators or representatives from each major group. In 2012, the election process started and several hundred candidates applied from all over the world, nominated by these accredited organisations. Finally about 30 youth leaders from the US, Europe, Asia and Africa were shortlisted. It was a huge honour when I was finally selected,” gushes the young student,” Kehkashan said.

Since then life has been a whirlwind of tours and conferences in between lessons at Deira International School, “learning something new at every conference or event”.

Born on June 5, World Environment Day, the issue closest to Kehkashan’s heart is environment. She has founded a youth group called Green Hope UAE to carry forward the Rio+20 (UN conference on sustainable development that she attended) legacy of sustainable development. “We are keen to learn about alternate energy, especially solar energy, since fossil fuel harms the environment,” said the global president of the children’s board for Plant-for-the-Planet.

Calcutta, the city where her parents grew up and which she visits every year to meet her grandmothers, fares reasonably well on Kehkashan’s green score card. “One actually realises how green Calcutta is when viewed from the air, near as one approaches the airport. But as with every major metro in India, overcrowding here has led to high pollution levels. I stay in south Calcutta which is still quite green.” On her last visit to the city, Kehkashan shared with students of Loreto House her green plans.

And if you thought this high-flying 13-year-old misses out on regular teenage fun, Kehkashan offers a different take. “Actually my life would have been pretty boring without my endeavour. I have friends across the globe now and travelling to new places is such fun. When you are doing what you love, you don’t feel stressed out,” said the daughter of a mechanical engineer from IIT-Kharagpur and a Loreto College alumna.

Her other loves? Fish, declares the self-proclaimed “true blue Bengali” who dreams of being a nuclear physicist one day.