CCC Secretary Robert E.A. Borje, NYC Chairperson Usec. Joseph Francisco “Jeff” R. Ortega, NYC Commissioner for Luzon Asec. Gervy James Gumarit, and UNICEF Representative ad interim Behzad Noubary join young climate leaders from across ASEAN at the Climate Action and Disaster Resilience Conference.

MANILA, Philippines | 5 May 2025 – Youth leaders gathered on 1 to 2 May 2025 for the ASEAN Youth in Climate Action and Disaster Resilience Conference, focusing on building climate and disaster resilience. The event, led by the National Youth Commission, featured expert talks, workshops, and policy discussions, culminating in the Youth Output Declaration—a call for stronger, youth-driven climate solutions.

In a message at the opening of the ASEAN Youth in Climate Action and Disaster Resilience Conference, Secretary Robert E.A. Borje, Vice Chairperson and Executive Director of the Climate Change Commission (CCC), issued a call to action for ASEAN youth leaders. “You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the ocean in a drop.”

In his keynote, Borje shared a moving story of a young woman from Mindanao who, despite poverty and the destruction of her home by landslides, pursued education as her form of resistance and peacebuilding. “Her journey,” he said, “is not just about personal resilience. It mirrors the broader struggles of many of our communities.”

Borje praised the youth delegates for transforming “struggle into strategy, loss into leadership, and despair into action,” stressing that their grassroots climate initiatives are already reshaping national and regional climate discourse.

With Southeast Asia facing worsening impacts from climate change, including 140 disasters in the Asia-Pacific in 2022 alone, Borje emphasized the need for urgent, united action. “ASEAN must move further, faster, and together. We suffer together, so we must find solutions together.”

He also called for deeper engagement between youth and institutions. “The duty now is to co-partner, co-lead, and co-solve. We cannot do this alone.”

Borje also emphasized that under the committed leadership of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., the Philippines is pursuing a unified, ‘one-country team’ approach—a whole-of-government strategy that engages youth as co-architects of climate solutions.

Aligned with the CCC’s mandate to promote climate resilience, Borje reaffirmed the Commission’s commitment to empowering youth voices and integrating them into national frameworks such as the National Climate Change Action Plan, National Adaptation Plan, and Philippine Youth Development Plan.

“Building a climate-smart, disaster-resilient ASEAN is a generational mandate,” Borje said. “The CCC stands ready to walk this path with you.”

The ASEAN Youth Declaration to be drafted during the conference will serve as a rallying call for youth-led climate action across the region and beyond, ensuring that young voices remain at the center of shaping a resilient future.

The conference brought together 57 youth delegates from nine ASEAN countries and across the Philippines to shape the ASEAN Youth Declaration on Climate Action and Disaster Resilience, to be submitted at the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change.

To know more about the CCC’s climate awareness campaigns and initiatives to strengthen youth engagement in climate governance, visit www.climate.gov.ph and follow @cccphl on social media