BLACKPINK named advocates for UN climate change conference
K-pop girl group BLACKPINK have been appointed as advocates for the United Nations’ (UN) upcoming 26th Climate Change Conference (COP26).
According to their label YG Entertainment, per KBS, the quartet were invited to serve as goodwill ambassadors for COP26 during a ceremony that was held on Thursday (February 25) at the British Embassy in Seoul. BLACKPINK also reportedly received a personal letter from British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who thanked the group for their advocacy.
“Your recent video ‘Climate Action in Your Area #COP26’ was a huge success, being viewed over 10million times across social media platforms,” Johnson wrote, according to The Korea Herald. “Climate change is the most important issue of our time… it is fantastic that you have chosen this moment to lend your voices to this critical issue.”
At the event, BLACKPINK also spoke to the BBC about their advocacy work and why they felt compelled to speak up. “We’re losing more of the natural world every day and time is running out. […] We just really felt like we need to say something,” said Jennie.
“The documentary that Sir David Attenborough presented, A Life On Our Planet, has helped us a lot and various other platforms has helped to actually learn more about what we could actually do to sustain our beautiful planet,” Rose added. “I think we’ve all still got so much more to learn but if it feels good that we can be able to participate in such an important cause.”
Jisoo later noted that the group’s message to fans is that “it’s not too late” to address climate change, and urged others to “learn more and work to make it better”. Lisa also stated that “the first step is to know what’s happening with climate change because it affects all of us. We want to learn more and we hope our fans do too”.
Earlier this week, BLACKPINK hit another new milestone with the video for their 2018 hit ‘Ddu-du Ddu-du’. Their label YG Entertainment announced on Wednesday (February 24) that the quartet became the first K-pop group to cross 1.5billion views on YouTube with their music video for ‘Ddu-du Ddu-du’.
