Mitzi Jonelle Tan

Mitzi Jonelle Tan is a youth climate activist from Marikina City, Metro Manila, Philippines born at 365 ppm. The Philippines is one of the most climate vulnerable countries in the world, and as of 2019, the 2nd most dangerous country for environmental defenders. She has always been very passionate about the environment. Even at the age of 9, she would go up to strangers and tell them about greenhouse gases and global warming and she would weep when she saw the destruction happening around her after every typhoon.

While studying at the University of the Philippines Diliman, she was a student leader and became part of the College of Science Student Council where she was part of the environmental concerns committee. In 2017, Tan was able to talk with one of the leaders of the Lumad indigenous group in the Philippines and he told her about how they were being militarised, displaced, harassed, and killed all for defending the forests, the environment, their home and that was why they have no choice but to fight back. That was when she realized that we need collective action to push for systemic change.

In 2019, she convened Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines, the Fridays For Future of the Philippines and has been raising awareness, talking to policy makers, organizing strikes, and making connections globally ever since. Also active in Fridays for Future International, Tan always brings her advocacies of climate justice, intersectional environmentalism, and leadership of the vulnerable everywhere she goes. She also always fights to make sure that voices from the Global South are heard, amplified, and given space.