She was born and lives in the Philippines and, as COP26 has started, her petition is addressed to heads of state, “to those, she writes, who have the power to decide, to make laws to ask them for actsMitzi Jonelle Tan is 23, graduated in mathematics, spokesperson for the youth climate movement in the Philippines, and she co-wrote this petition with her best friend, Greta Thunberg, as well as two other figures in the Friday for Future movement. Their text was posted on Avaaz.org at the opening of the 26th climate conference, and on Monday, November 1, it had already collected 1.2 million signatures. Their demands: that States stop subsidize fossil fuels, oil, gas and coal, and stop issuing new exploration permits for deposits. “It takes courage, but these leaders need to know that if they go for it, millions of people will be behind them.. “
“We can still do this. There is still time to avoid the worst consequences if we are prepared to change. It will take determined, visionary leadership. It will take immense courage, but know that when you rise, billions will be right behind you . “
Sign! https://t.co/v0YcprQu09
– Mitzi Jonelle Tan #UprootTheSystem (@mitzijonelle) October 31, 2021
Mitzi Tan grew up in fear of floods and typhoons, which are increasingly numerous and intense each year in his native region. She tells AFP her nights of getting up with her parents to scoop the water in the house, her questions to know if it is like that elsewhere, if it was like that before. “When I was little, she says, we heard that climate change was about melting ice and polar bears, but nobody was talking about what we were going through, and it was only very recently that I realized that oil, coal, and companies that exploit these fossil fuels are the cause.“So she signed up.
Mitzi Jonelle Tan has started demonstrating in Manila, asking his government to end the use of coal and protect the poorest in the face of climate disasters. Then she met Greta Thunberg, and she widened her approach to the whole world. Two years later, Mitzi Tan is at COP26 and intends to challenge the heads of state present. “I always get asked what my hopes are but I don’t just have hope, I have very concrete expectations, such as the fact that we get out of our obsession with GDP, that we change our perspective, that we tell ourselves that real development is not eternal growth, it is more solidarity, climate justice and equity. ” underlines Mitzi Tan.