Dingdong Dantes, Fil-Aussie poet perform at Paris climate talks

Paris, France — National Youth Commission’s Commissioner at Large Dingdong Dantes attended the Conference of Parties (COP) 21, the largest climate conference to date together with the Philippine delegation.

Dantes, a #NowPH ambassador, together with President Benigno Aquino III, handed over a million signatures of young Filipinos asking for a strong climate agreement to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). #NowPH is the campaign of the Climate Change Commission and National Youth Commission. #NowPH is a youth led campaign calling on world leaders to prevent global warming from reaching 2 degrees celsius.

Dantes and Aquino also joined the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), an international partnership of 20 countries that are highly vulnerable to global warming, of which the Philippines is the current chair.

Dantes delivered an emotional speech saying, “On paper I am representing the Philippines but I am also representing my daughter, who is only 7 days.” Marian Rivera, Dantes’ wife, gave birth last November 23 to Maria Letizia.

“Every Filipino who has survived typhoon is a climate expert in one way or another. We have the Filipino at your side and we want to have you fight with us,” Dantes added.

Another artist, Filipino-Australian poet Eunice Andrada was at the COP21. Andrada recently won Spoken Word for the World, a poetry competition to find the world’s most powerful spoken word poets who are ready to inspire the world to take action on Climate change.

Andrada, now Australia-based, described how it feels to see the Philippines hit by cimate change impacts from afar. “It’s devastating to see the Philippines stricken by storm after storm and to watch the destruction of your home country unfold through a screen,” she said.

Andrada also calls on leaders to start taking climate action seriously.

“What’s even more disheartening is the lack of prompt, serious action to mitigate the impact of climate change. We call typhoon Haiyan and hurricane Patricia ‘monster storms’, but there’s a need to recognize monsters don’t just come into being themselves,” she added.

Andrada and Dantes performed a poem entitled “Pacific Salt.” — TJD, GMA News