Hundreds of us across nine countries consisting of Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Myanmar, Cambodia and Thailand, will be coming out on the streets throughout September 20 – 27 to demand not only more ambitious climate action but also climate justice for our communities, along with millions of strikers of all ages in more than a hundred countries around the world. We call on our respective national governments to heed our call for declarations of climate emergency.
There is no sugarcoating it – East Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to climate change impacts. Indonesia has just announced it will move its capital city, Jakarta, faced with sea level rise and urban flooding. Thailand too will have to do the same in a few years, as Bangkok is predicted to be underwater by 2030. Millions of homes are left without power across the country, as typhoons in Japan escalate. This is not to mention millions of vulnerable communities on the frontline of climate change threatened by, food and water scarcity, displacement, pollution and illnesses, and even human rights violations and displacement in the face of the rapid expansion of fossil fuel projects and both slow-onset disasters and extreme weather events. Countries in Southeast Asia are blanketed by smoke–with major cities recording more than 200 US Air Quality Index (AQI), people are choking every year as the transboundary haze became an annual occurrence
Throughout the next few days, we will hold a series of events including strikes, rallies, as well as workshops, panel discussions and gatherings. If you live on Planet Earth, we are inviting you to join, because this fight is not just for our home planet–it’s for us the people.
We are demanding our governments to declare a climate emergency, as a first step to address the climate crisis and work in alignment with the Paris Agreement goal in reducing carbon emissions to keep global temperatures below 1.5 degrees celsius. Some of our groups, especially in Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand, are also demanding a just transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
The burden of our uncertain future should not just be left up to climate scientists and environmentalists, but to everyone, might you be a student, businessperson, father or mother, a friend, a mayor, a cyclist, a farmer or an artist. Regardless of who we are or what we do, we all need food, water, air and shelter–and these very basic human needs are being threatened by inaction to climate change. Our human rights are being violated by our governments’ lack of response to the collapse of ecosystems around the world.
Together we stand, millions of us youth strikers will be back on the streets not just for ourselves, but also for the billions of people living on this planet. Climate change is already happening everyday. To hold polluters accountable, we are striking to spark a much needed conversation about this injustice. Your life and your voice matters, so let’s fight for it at the Global Climate Strike Week.
- Philippines – Jefferson Estela (Youth Strike 4 Climate Philippines)
- Malaysia – Ili Nadiah Dzulfakar (Klima Action Malaysia – KAMY )
- Indonesia – Novita Indri (Climate Rangers Indonesia)
- Taiwan – Pin-han Huang (Taiwan Youth Climate Coalition)
- Japan – Erina Imai (Fridays for Future Kobe)
- South Korea – Borim Kim (YouthClimateAction in Republic of Korea)
- Myanmar – Moh Moh Myint Zaw (Strike for Climate Myanmar)
- Thailand – Nanticha Ocharoenchai (Climate Strike Thailand)
- Cambodia – Phin Savey