We – the generation of young climate and environmental activists – urge public financial institutions to establish a deadline to stop financing fossil fuels with the people’s money at the Finance in Common Summit. As youth who bear the costs of climate breakdown, we demand world leaders ensure policies that protect our environment, the air we breathe, the soil that feeds us and the water we drink from pollution and exploitation. The first step is that countries of the global North must understand they are the most responsible for the climate crisis. Meanwhile, people in the most vulnerable areas of the global South suffer most of its consequences. It is high time the global North unconditionally paid reparations to the most affected people and areas for the historic injustices we have suffered. A complete transition to sustainable, egalitarian economic systems is required, with energy grids based on just, renewable sources . Our ecosystems must remain intact. It is not an option. Public financial institutions giving loans to fossil fuel industries is a double insult. They are exacerbating climate chaos and allowing more illegitimate debt, which our generation will have to pay for with our lives. Typhoon Goni, the strongest typhoon this year, left hundreds of thousands of us in the Philippines homeless, hungry and cold. Flooding in the Indian state of Bihar displaced 7 million people. We are amid a pandemic and 783 million people in Africa and 76 million people in India do not have a safe water supply. Hurricane Eta brought destruction upon Central America. This year needs to be a turning point. We must use the pandemic response to begin our just transition. This includes a debt standstill for countries with the poorest economies, an immediate stop to fossil fuel investments and the promotion of locally adapted sustainable recovery measures. Until the system changes, we will keep fighting for climate justice, for our lives and for the lives that have been taken away. Firm commitments during the Finance in Common Summit are critical to manage the transition towards a low-carbon economy and will help unleash private investment towards the clean energy future we all want. To the ones controlling our money, we say: do what is just, or else do what is necessary. We are not fighting for the planet, we are fighting for our lives. World leaders, take us seriously. We need climate justice today. Help us build our future. Do not destroy it. We are counting on you. Mitzi Jonelle Tan, Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines; Disha A Ravi, Fridays For Future India; Laura Veronica Muñoz, Fridays For Future Colombia