Youth leaders assemble for Climate Change, inspire more than a thousand

More than 1000 youth leaders and university students from the Philippines and across Asia gathered and assembled in Manila and Bataan for the CALD Youth Climate Change Youth Summit: “Translating Ideas into Action – Youth Leadership for Climate Change”.

Organized by the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD), in cooperation with Rock Ed Philippines, the Office of the Philippine Presidential Adviser for Environmental Protection (OPAEP), and the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA), the event took place on 4-8 February 2015 with the support of Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF). It brought together youth leaders from Burma, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, to discuss and interact in a series of activities on how the youth can play an active and vibrant role for environmental protection, sustainable development, and climate change response.

The summit commenced when a 45-member international delegation convened in Manila, Philippines, for a welcome dinner reception hosted by the Laguna Lake Development Authority of the Philippines on 04 February. Neric Acosta, Philippine Presidential Adviser for Environmental Protection, General Manager of LLDA, and Chairperson of the CALD Climate Change Committee, welcomed the delegates and facilitated a guided tour of the LLDA ‘green’ building – the first government green building of the Philippines.

The occasion continued with a discussion on environmental protection and social media. Zak Yuson, Founder of MovePH of Rappler, facilitated the panel of: Dingdong Dantes, Commissioner-at-Large of the National Youth Commission of the Philippines; Lesley Cordero, Undersecretary of the Office of the Philippine Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery; Gang Badoy, Writer-at-Large for Political Affairs for Esquire Magazine – Philippines, and Founder of Rock Ed Philippines; and Au Nok-hin, Executive Member of the Democratic Party of Hong Kong, and Member of the Southern District Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

The speakers and youth leaders alike agreed that the youth need to and should definitely play a more active role in responding to climate change issues, and use social media as the main resource to raise awareness. According to Badoy, social media can be utilized to disseminate information and spark interest. “Twitter is the longest tentacle any climate advocate has,” she explained. The challenge lies in creating “bite size and digestible” pieces of complex information, she added. Advocates should be able to translate the prism of climate concepts into a language easily understood by the youth today. Badoy concluded by saying that, “The language of climate change is complex so the challenge is to translate”.

By the following day, the group traveled altogether to Bataan, Philippines, for a 3-day workshop and other activities. CALD delegates took part in a workshop facilitated by Badoy from 5-6 February. The sessions sought to enable participants to become effective climate change communicators and empowered advocates.

After the workshops, CALD organized a public university conference attended by hundreds of students from Bataan. Jose Enrique “Joet” Garcia III, Mayor of Balanga City of Bataan delivered the keynote address. In his speech, the mayor highlighted key local government initiatives for environmental protection, sustainable development, climate change, youth education, among others. Neric Acosta followed with a briefing on understanding the basics of climate change.

Alarmed by volatile weather extremes that are hitting the Asia Pacific region now more often than any other in the world in horrifying proportions, tackling the issue and challenge of climate change requires urgent action, with the engagement of all relevant stakeholders – including the young. CALD Program and Administrative Officer and Member of the International Federation of Liberal Youth’s Climate Change Programme Paul Rafael, spoke on mobilizing the youth for climate change initiatives, and echoed these sentiments. “Climate change may have different faces, as its adverse impacts vary from one part of the region to the other. But climate change excludes no one, everyone is at risk. I urge you, young people, to participate. No one is ever too young to make a difference”, said Rafael.

The summit made sure to provide ample opportunity for the diverse group of delegates to discuss and exchange views, and as well as to interact with the local students. Together with the CALD delegation were 8 local universities represented in a crowd of roughly 400 people. After the speeches and presentations, universities were challenged to a friendly competition with each other and come up with a creative and youthful way on how to promote climate change awareness. In the end, Bataan Peninsula State University – Balanga Campus won the nods of the judges as having the most impressive and creative presentation.

Acknowledging that learning (about climate change) can be done in more ways than one, a music festival was held at the Plaza Mayor de Balanga after the conference, which drew more than a thousand attendees. Local bands, including Philippine music icons such as Johnoy Danao and Ebe Dancel performed and rocked the stage for climate change.

On 7 February, before delegates left Bataan for Manila, the group went out for a eco-heritage tour at Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar – an open-air museum and heritage park in Bagac, Bataan, Philippines.

Commenting on the fruitful youth summit, CALD Climate Change Committee Chair Neric Acosta pronounces: “the youth and their generational language of music, art, and social media, serves as a powerful tool of communication and engagement in helping everyone understand the challenges we face in this day and age of climate change. This is the megaphone that makes climate change understood as a clear and present danger – and still, opportunity to educate and be involved.”