Photograph: British Council Nepal
When I was selected as one of the International Climate Champions by British Council, Nepal, in 2009, I just had basic knowledge about Climate Change.

However, I was sent to Bangladesh along with nine other Champions, where we visited places that were very badly affected as a result of climate change. We saw the people suffering. We also gained a lot of information by attending workshops organized by the British Council, Bangladesh.

In our own country, Nepal, we have been experiencing a lot of unpredictable happenings. When I was on my way to Pokhara for a show, I looked outside the plane to see the beautiful view of the Himalayan Range but the snow peaks were very few and I saw the bare black huge rocks staring back.

So, through music I’ve tried my best to spread the message of awareness to all Nepalese and everyone in the world to act quickly and contribute in their own way to help control this climate change right away before it is too late. This is why, with some of my fellow Climate Champions, I helped organise Saturday’s Climate Change concert at Basantapur, a heritage site in Kathmandu.

The main objective of our concert was to spread awareness on Climate Change via music and information stalls.

I went to the venue at 6:30am. The stalls were ready and big speakers were being set up. At 11:30am, our MC arrived and announced that the stalls were officially open for all people. Then he called on British Council Acting Country Director, Ewan Davies, to release my song and my band started performing the Climate Change song “JAGOU”.

At 2:00pm the show ‘proper’ began with a person making different kinds of animal and bird voices to raise awareness of the importance of preserving wildlife.

I had already briefed all the artists to say something about climate change and its impact. Mahesh Gurung sang two of his own songs and said few words on climate change, then Ciney Gurung sang some popular songs from her album and the crowd started singing along. There were many other bands including Kid Soul band, Buddha N Shrestha, Force and Sarathi Band (who sang cover songs of western rock bands – I could see the people waving hands in the air and singing along!) and ALT+F4 band, who performed their original numbers along with their message ‘Be aware with Climate Change because it is happening.’

Nepalese pop star Dibya Subba also said few words on climate change and started singing, then my band X-Mantra entered the stage I could only see heads of crowd, there were 30,000 plus people gathered to view this event.

I talked about climate change and about what we are facing in Nepal. It was so amazing. The crowd started chanting along with me. I had a theme, ‘We don’t want Climate Change’, which proved quite popular! Then Kaal band entered the stage and with messages and their song we ended the show.

After the success of this year’s concert ‘Climate Change, Mero Bhawishwa, Mero Chaso’ (which means ‘Climate Change, My Future, My Concern’) next year I am planning to do the same theme concert at the stadium as I believe that music can touch the hearts of people and inspire them to make positive action against climate change.

 Rojesh Shrestha is a member of Nepalese band X-Mantra and a British Council International Climate Champion