Last November 24, Dongha Yeo (Kevin), Yan Ki Wong (Alex), and Chi Yuan Lin (Morris), Grade 10 students from Manila Xiamen International School, organized a TEDxMXIS event held at SM Xiamen. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized event that brings people together to share in a TED-like experience.

This year, the students organized a TEDx Countdown: To a Better Future event, part of the Countdown Summit, that brought together 1,000 leaders in Edinburgh, Scotland, last October, where TED speakers shared a blueprint for a beautiful net-zero future.

The TEDx Countdown aims to build a better future by cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 in the race to a zero-carbon world – a world that is safer, cleaner, and fairer for everyone. This event is a global initiative to champion and accelerate solutions to the climate crisis, turning ideas into action.

The event aims to spread the critical and urgent issue of the climate crisis and global warming and the plans and actions China or the Xiamen community is making. Like the saying goes, Think Global but Act Local.

Six speakers shared their ideas on actionable solutions to combat the warming planet. Stephen Duah Agyeman from Ghana and currently a doctoral candidate/researcher at China Institute for Studies in Energy Policy, Xiamen University, shared Gen Z’s attitudes towards consumption and its contribution to energy use. Alvaro Enrique Royo Barcenas, an architect-designer from Colombia, talked about how eating three times a day can help the planet three times a day.

Founder and Creative Director of the KRE8 design studio, Bode Oluwa from the UK, discussed a vision of a world where kids do not outgrow shoes. Uwe Michael Schall from Germany talked about ALGAE and its essential role in saving the planet. Raj Prasad, an interior architect from Singapore, spoke about the future of our city. And lastly, Lin Yan Yan, GRC Rooftop Garden committee member from China, talked about the rooftop garden project in a community in Xiamen.

An exhibition of posters and photography by students from different international schools, the Manila Xiamen International School, Xiamen International School, Chiway Repton School, Maple Glory School, and Xiamen Xingcai Vocational & Technical College, was also held simultaneously on the 1st floor of the Topaz building of SM New Lifestyle Center. The exhibition's theme focuses on Climate and the Community: The Challenges and the Solutions and is organized by Cielo Erin Go and Morris Lin, both Grade 10 students from MXIS.

During the TEDxMXIS event, there were also student performances from different international schools. MXIS Dance Team presented dance performances, XIS performed two band shows, and MXIS Grade 7 students performed drum duo.

The event was sponsored by SM Xiamen, EVER, Master Translations, Xiamen GuanRen Global Community, and the Manila Xiamen International School. In addition, representatives from the Consulate General of the Republic of the Philippines, the Consul General, Maria Antonina Mendoza-Oblena, Vice Consul, Mrs. Elaine Mae Laruan Hernandez, and Cultural and Information Officer, Reigfred Albello, and from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mr. Franz Geitzeiler came to witness this momentous event.