“Youth are leaders now, not just tomorrow,” says Patricia Mungcal at COP29
International
During COP29, the World Council of Churches interviewed Patricia Mungcal, a young climate advocate and humanitarian leader from the National Council of Churches in the Philippines and a member of the ACT Alliance delegation. Speaking from Baku, Azerbaijan, Mungcal reflected on the challenges faced by frontline communities in disaster-prone regions, the barriers youth face in accessing decision-making spaces, and the hope she finds in collective resistance and solidarity
During COP29, the World Council of Churches (WCC) interviewed Patricia Mungcal, a young climate advocate and humanitarian leader from the National Council of Churches in the Philippines and a member of the ACT Alliance delegation. Speaking from Baku, Azerbaijan, Mungcal reflected on the challenges faced by frontline communities in disaster-prone regions, the barriers youth face in accessing decision-making spaces, and the hope she finds in collective resistance and solidarity.
As a young person working in disaster-prone areas, what do you see as the role of youth in tackling climate issues?
Mungcal: Young people are leaders as well, not just youth leaders, not just leaders for tomorrow, but leaders right now—capable leaders who can bring innovations. We come from diverse sectors like academia, science, farming, rights movements, and civil society. We know the climate crisis—we have lived it. I am a humanitarian program manager in one of the world’s most disaster-prone, if not the most disaster-prone, countries. So I think that says a lot about recognizing the youth voice and leadership in terms of disasters and climate crises.
Do young people have equal opportunities to contribute to solutions at forums like COP29?
Mungcal: We are reminded not to look at young people because we are young but because of what we can bring to the table. How can we bring our capacities, experiences, hopes, rage, and compassion if we don’t have access to the table or participate in the decision-making? As a young woman, I experience different layers of exclusivity and not having access. But I think those are things I must fight for. My ideas are based on country realities that are happening on the ground. My ideas are based on truth, science, and facts. I have something to bring to the table, and my voice needs to be heard, especially when dealing with this climate crisis.
What message are you bringing to COP29, and what do you hope to achieve?
Mungcal: I hope the truth will come out of these negotiations. And what I mean by truth is the climate realities. Because what is happening inside is that decisions are being made by most people who have not experienced the climate crisis we are experiencing back home in the Philippines. We are in an emergency, in a chronic state of survival, experiencing disasters one after another. I want to bring that to the table. I want to bring those stories, that truth, that climate reality to this place.
In such difficult circumstances, where do you find hope?
Mungcal: Right now, the Philippines is experiencing four typhoons in just one week and seven in under a month. That is not normal, even for a disaster-prone country like ours. Communities that have just survived one disaster are already preparing for the next. It’s overwhelming, and it’s really easy for me to be hopeless. I think it is valid to be hopeless, but it is not the right thing and is not what is needed right now. What is required is for us to hold on to hope. And for me, I find hope in people’s resistance. Back home, people are used to receiving aid through those tiny relief packs, and people would call that climate solutions. I see resistance against inaction, against false solutions, against lip service. And I see it in our communities and here in Baku—young people and civil society asserting their spaces to be heard. That kind of resistance comes from indignation at all the injustices they are experiencing. But it also comes from love and compassion for one another. As long as one person resists this climate injustice, I am hopeful.
What would you say to young people who feel overwhelmed by the scale of the climate crisis?
Mungcal: Grieving about what is happening to our planet and communities is okay. It is okay to grieve our future, and it is okay to feel that way. And many people, young and old, feel that way as well. People feel that way because they care so much. But it would be best if you grieved with other people. You should connect with other people, and that would bring hope and that kind of solidarity. And when there is solidarity, action comes in naturally. We don’t have to push it because we are all grieving; it comes out of love. Let’s put that love into solidarity and that solidarity into action.
First published on the World Council of Churches website on 19 November 2024.
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