Wearing a confident smile and an oversized hoodie, 12-year-old Francisco Javier Vera climbed onto a table and told cheering COP26 protesters of the activism that has earned him death threats.

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The bespectacled school boy has become something of a sensation in his native Colombia, where he has earned a following for his charismatic championing of the environment and human rights.

Francisco, who stands just 1.4 metres (4 feet and six inches) tall, does not think his youth should diminish his voice. “Regardless of what people say, that boys and girls are the future, I believe we are the present, we are the present and we have an opinion and a voice as citizens,” he told AFP.

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“But they don’t allow us to express it.”  He speaks quickly and passionately, with dramatic gesticulation to emphasise his point: there are few other children at the COP26 venu…