*FRB Pabiania, Association of Young Environmental Journalist
Inspired by Greta Thunberg who started her own school “strike ” in Sweden in 2018, youth and communities around the world have devoted a day or more for their own version of climate strikes to underscore the urgency of the climate crisis despite the coronavirus pandemic.
While local government units have imposed health protocols or measures including social distancing, which inhibited the gathering of people along the streets to call out issues and concerns, protests or rallies have been limited the past few months. Some have moved from streets to screens.
Various environmental and climate organizations around the Philippines converged online in response to the call to celebrate last Sept. 25 Global Day of Climate Action.
Filipino youth have been mobilizing individuals and communities to strengthen collective action toward climate justice. And their appeal for support gathered thousands of individuals and sectoral representatives who posted on social media their messages against climate abuses.
The emerging climate alliance and movement in the country expressed their calls as the “climate crisis continues to impact lives and livelihoods and further compounds on existing inequalities,” even under a global health pandemic.
Calling itself Youth Strike 4 Climate Philippines , or YS4C PH, the alliance has shifted to the online platform to hold a digital climate strike with the theme, “Para Sa Klimabukasan,” which targets climate action to preserve the future of the current and succeeding generations.
“The Global Climate Strike will be entirely different from our previous strikes because we are taking our action online to show our innovative response to the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic to advocacy work,” they said.
In its DECLARE POINTS TO ACT ON, YS4C PH demanded a commitment from different government institutions and agencies to support the climate action. The organization presented the “Youth Declaration for Climate Justice”, an integration of the National Youth Demand, Better Normal Youth Agenda, and State of the Environment and Youth Address Demands.
The call for action was made amidst threats to environmental defenders and activists but, we do not want to remain only an inspiration. We want to move corporations and the government to act against the climate crisis and be held accountable for their misgivings,” the youth organization said.
The declaration further called action to:
- Address the climate crisis with urgency to achieve climate justice, Implement environmental and natural resource conservation policies
- Support the ambition to create sustainable Philippine cities and communities that have a circular economy
- Safeguard the rights of indigenous peoples and environmental defenders and
- Uphold citizen participation within our society that upholds democratic principles. As to why the government must listen to the call of the youth, YS4C PH co-founder Jefferson Estela said that with the absence of any specific policy actions concerning youth needs and interests in the executive recovery plan of the Philippine government, they are putting forward the unified and collective voice of the Filipino youth from Luzon, Visaya and Mindanao, and demanding a better normal.
As the generation that are experiencing the worst consequences of the pandemic and the climate crisis, we believe that the current pandemic has revealed broken systems , yet it has also opened doors that can enable systemic changes so that the youth of today and future generations will have a chance to thrive in a better world,” he said.*
