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UK News

Filipino Christian climate change campaigner: "The damage has been done but what about the coming years?"

Miguel Magalang, who has previously worked with former US Vice-President Al Gore, is in the UK lobbying politicians at the different party conferences ahead of the event in Paris.

World leaders will gather to attempt to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate. If it happens it would be the first such agreement in more than 20 years.

"This may be the last hope for us to get an ambitious fair agreement, for the rich, developed countries to really put in their mind and their hearts the problems that are happening in the third world because of the effects of climate change," Miguel Magalang told Premier.

"We are victims and survivors of this problem and we appeal to them, especially the UK government."

What's happening in Paris?

- Runs from 30 November to 11 December
- 190 world leaders attending
- Leaders will look to make collective agreement on how to work together to combat climate change

Mr Magalang, who goes by the name Myke, lives on one of the islands of the Philippines which has been hit particularly hard by typhoons in recent years. 2013's Typhoon Haiyan saw over six thousand people killed and millions made homeless. Damage was estimated to have cost almost $3 billion.

While thanking western countries for their financial support he's calling for a different response, which tackles the root of the problem.

"International development is not about money," he said. "It's about solidarity and partnership. That is why we have to solve this climate crisis."

"The damage is done, but what about in the coming years?

"There are more typhoons, in the Philippines we've observed the changes in the last two or three decades. Before, we had typhoons but we can live with it, but the frequency and magnitude has become so huge we can't bear it anymore."

Ahead of the summit, Pope Francis released a highly influential document on the issue of climate change in which he said the treatment of the planet over the past two centuries has been worse than ever before.

Calling on Catholics to do what they can to make a difference, he said: "Yet all is not lost. Human beings, while capable of the worst, are also capable of rising above themselves, choosing again what is good and making a new start."

Miguel Magalang wants churches to take the lead in putting pressure on governments to commit to making a difference on climate change. "It's a very simple thing, we ask the churches and the aid organisations to be our voices," he said.

"To do their share in expressing their solidarity and to appeal to their governments and amplify our voices in calling for the responsibility to make a difference in the climate this summer."

Listen to Miguel Magalang speaking to Premier's Marcus Jones:

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