By Jamie Tahana for RNZ Pacific
Photo: AFP / Lina Selg
2025 was a big year for Vishal Prasad. From the giddy high of a win at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), to the euphoria of being awarded an 'alternative nobel prize' as part of a collective of Pacific activists, while also plumbing new depths of frustration and despair at international climate talks in Brazil.
The 28 year-old, who lives in Suva, has been beamed across the world this year as the president of Pacific Island Students Fighting Climate Change, the group of Pacific youth behind the herculean effort to take the world's major emitters to the UN's highest court in the Hague.
In an interview this week, Prasad said the mammoth year ended with a flurry of emotions: pride, gratitude, and elation on one hand, frustration and growing concern on the other.
"The year has been a huge year," he said. "We've seen immense, huge developments in the climate space, the ICJ's advisory opinion being one of the huge outcomes.
"[But] It is a very difficult time. I'd say we're at this point coming into the end of the year because the necessary energy and the speed at which the world needs to move still is lacking in many space
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