The National Youth Council (NYC) encouraged young Filipinos to participate in the Earth Hour 2017 celebration on March 25.

“I think it’s about time that the youth be involved in the whole environmental concern issue, because this is our planet right now. We are going to have to deal with the past issues and mistakes that have been done for and we’re going to live through that,” Alexa Cancio National Youth Council chairperson told reporters after the Earth Hour kick-off press conference.

“The youth is so aware of all these different concerns and we want to get involved,” she added.

The Earth Hour 2017 celebration will be held on March 25 at SM by the Bay, Mall of Asia Complex in Pasay City.

An Earth Hour Camp spearheaded by the members of the NYC will also be held along with the main switch-off event,  it will include activities on interactive climate adaptation and mitigation booths, native tree planting, renewable energy technologies, and disaster go-bag preparation.

“We want to encourage all the other young Filipinos to do their own activities, they can always approach us. There are many specific matters that need to be addressed because we’re really are here to be the voice of the youth,” Cancio said.

“We can do so much more with the help of everyone else. With bringing the youth, it will be very beneficial because they will make everyone else care about taking care of the environment. It will go beyond just the young people,” she added.

NYC also said that they have mobilized about 10 schools who will participate in the Earth Hour 2017 celebration.

“It’s about transferring what we learned from school into legitimate and concerete actions, that’s what the Earth Hour is,  it will be a mass movement,” Nikki Huang, NYC member said.

Bambikes will also be part of Earth Hour 2017’s program, Izay Nazal, another member of NYC said, “It’s open for everyone to try just like last year. The concept is that these bambikes are gonna light up the stage. It’s a symbolism that together we can change climate change.”

Cancio, meanwhile, said that Climate change is “real” and is indeed happening now.

“Climate change is reality, we’re facing it right now. We want this to be a very honest discussion with the youth. We can’t keep it on a quiet level,” Cancio said.

“We need to step in and bring in the urgency right now. We’re trying to tell the youth that small actions are important and that’s absolutely true. When you put them all together it becomes a collective response,” she added.

NYC also invites the youth to join their upcoming activity, “Sustainable Travel Fair” on April 22 to 23 which will be held at Bonifacio High Street Central Mall in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City.