Greenpeace: next government must take up the cudgels and lead the call for climate justice
QUEZON CITY, PHILIPPINES – Climate survivors, advocates, and Greenpeace, on Friday called for urgent climate action from potential winners of the 2022 national election, after the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) released its groundbreaking report on the National Inquiry on Climate Change during a press event at the agency’s headquarters.
“The findings of the Commission on Human Rights are a victory for the millions of people whose fundamental rights are being impacted by the corporations behind the climate crisis,” said Yeb Saño, Greenpeace Southeast Asia-Philippines Executive Director. “The message is clear: there are legal grounds for communities to hold corporations accountable for undermining climate action.”
Greenpeace said the next step forward is for the incoming government to implement genuine climate action. The group also highlighted the need for a vibrant democracy and good governance that will enable climate and environmental justice.
“This decision comes at a time when the Filipinos are about to elect their new leaders, whose first order of business should be protecting the people from the impacts of the worsening climate crisis, heeding the communities’ call for accountability from the fossil fuel industry, and strengthening democratic processes and institutions,” said Greenpeace campaigner Virginia Llorin said.
“Ang report ay hindi makakapag-resolve sa climate change, subalit isang hakbang ito para singilin ang responsibilidad ng mga korporasyon sa paglala ng krisis na nagdudulot ng paglabag sa karapatang pantao,” said Derek Cabe of the Nuclear- and Coal-Free Bataan Movement. “It’s now or never.”
(This report will not resolve climate change, but this is one step toward holding corporations responsible for the worsening [climate] crisis, which leads to human rights violations. It’s now or never.)
“This case is significant as it is the first case in the Philippines and in the world where human rights harms caused by carbon majors/fossil fuel-producing companies have been exacted/demanded by vulnerable communities and CSOs,” said Atty. Grizelda “Gerthie” Mayo-Anda of the Environmental Legal Assistance Center (ELAC). “The finding that the business operations of these companies have human rights implications provides us with several possibilities in terms of future legal and policy actions; Filipino citizens, especially the vulnerable communities, can build upon the findings of the CHR report and pursue various pathways in seeking climate justice.”
“Alongside our co-petitioners, we are calling on the incoming Philippine government leaders and world leaders to adopt the Commission’s findings and hold big polluters responsible for the climate-damaging impacts of their business activities,” Llorin said. “Act on these findings and issue policies that will not only hold climate-polluting businesses accountable and prevent further harm but will also ensure a just future for the people.”
In particular, Greenpeace believes the next government must:
- Hold fossil fuel companies accountable for the climate crisis and call on other countries to do the same. It must also lead the call for a global phase out of fossil fuels toward a just transition to renewable energy.
- Call on rich countries for more ambitious emissions reductions targets, more money for climate finance, and compensation for loss and damage.
- Ensure rapid transition to renewable energy at home by phasing out coal, stopping fossil gas expansion and targeting at least 50% of RE in the energy mix by 2030.
- Ratchet up the country’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC). At the moment, the country has promised a 75% carbon emissions reduction from 2020 to 2030, but the unconditional target is only at 2.72%.
- Ensure the Climate Emergency Declaration is followed through with a coherent climate plan. The government must institute climate action as the central policy of the state, and must protect people and climate on the basis of climate justice. Climate action must also be at the heart of the country’s COVID recovery plan.
“The era where the fossil fuel industry and its backers can get away with and profit from their toxic practices is ending,” Saño said. “Impacted communities will continue to vindicate their human rights, to hold those responsible accountable and to demand justice. It’s time to take your power back.”
Quotes from other NICC Petitioners:
Von Hernandez of Greenpeace International, and 2003 Goldman Environmental Prize Awardee: “While long overdue, this report by the CHR provides supporting arguments for holding corporations accountable for their climate transgressions which impinge on the rights of citizens. As a petitioner, I feel the outcome of this process could have been much stronger and groundbreaking. It just means that our struggle for climate justice continues and we hope the next administration gives this issue the real importance it deserves.”
Rafael Sarucam of Nagkakaisang Ugnayan ng Mga Magsasaka at Manggagawa sa Niyugan (NIUGAN): Kami po ay nagpapasalamat nang marami (sa CHR) sapagkat hindi nasayang yung aming petisyon dito. Kami pong mga magsasaka sa niyog ay nagkakaisa sa bagay na ito.
Aileen Lucero, National Coordinator of EcoWaste Coalition: “EcoWaste Coalition stands with communities in calling for urgent climate action. The CHR findings should embolden impacted communities to seek remedies in courts for the injustice caused by corporate global emissions that have primarily caused climate change. We enjoin all Filipinos to stand up for climate and environmental justice, and ensure our elected officials in the next administration take this to heart.”
Beckie Malay of Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM): “As one of the first petitioners to the CHR on the impacts of climate change on human rights and looking into the responsibility of the carbon majors for the damages they have historically brought forth to the environment, PRRM has long been awaiting the release of this report. Whilst it would have had greater impact for our advocacy to link human rights as a major pillar for the people’s struggle to sustain life in these precarious times had the report been out much earlier, we nevertheless thank the CHR and Commissioner Totsie Cadiz for working on this. PRRM remembers its past President Gani Serrano who passed on with high hopes for fairness in a better world. PRRM’s sustainable development programme and projects are entrenched in the principles of social, economic and environmental justice. We hope that this report helps us to move on with our communities of rural women in Alabat who have independently joined the petitioners, to highlight the adverse impacts of climate change on their lives and threaten their efforts for sustainable development. Let us not waiver in our efforts to hold the carbon majors accountable, as we all are in a huge climate crisis.”
Notes to editors
[1] Read the full text of the final report by the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines: https://chr.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/CHRP-NICC-Report-2022.pdf
Major findings stated in the report include:
- Carbon Majors’ products contributed to 21.4% of global emissions (p. 99). The Carbon Majors had early awareness, notice, or knowledge of their products’ adverse impacts on the environment and climate system, at the latest, in 1965. (pp. 101-104)
- Carbon Majors, directly by themselves or indirectly through others, singly and/or through concerted action, engaged in willful obfuscation of climate science, which has prejudiced the right of the public to make informed decisions about their products, concealing that their products posed significant harms to the environment and the climate system. (pp. 108-109)
- In addition to liability anchored on acts of obfuscation of climate science, fossil-based companies may also be held to account by their shareholders for continued investments in oil explorations for largely speculative purposes. (p. 109)
- All acts to obfuscate climate science and delay, derail, or obstruct this transition may be a basis for liability. At the very least, they are immoral (p. 115). Climate change denial and efforts to delay the global transition from fossil fuel dependence still persists. Obstructionist efforts are driven, not by ignorance, but by greed. Fossil fuel enterprises continue to fund the electoral campaigns of politicians, with the intention of slowing down the global movement towards clean, renewable energy. (p. 110)
- The Carbon Majors have the corporate responsibility to undertake human rights due diligence and provide remediation (p. 110). Business enterprises, including their value chains, doing business in, or by some other reason within the jurisdiction of, the Philippines, may be compelled to undertake human rights due diligence and held accountable for failure to remediate human rights abuses arising from their business operations (pp. 113-114).
[2] The final report is the result of a seven-year inquiry conducted by the Commission on Human Rights at the request of communities and individuals that have been severely impacted by extreme weather disasters in the Philippines, such as super typhoon Haiyan. The group of 47 investor-owned corporations named in the petition includes BHP Billiton, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ENI, ExxonMobil, Glencore, OMV, Repsol, Sasol, Shell, Suncor, Total and RWE.
The publication of the final report follows an initial announcement made in December 2019 at the sidelines of the UNFCCC COP 25 in Madrid, wherein Commissioner Roberto Cadiz stated that the Commission had found fossil fuel companies may in fact be held liable “where they have been clearly proved to have engaged in acts of obstruction and willful obfuscation.” See: https://www.climatedocket.com/2019/12/09/philippines-human-rights-climate-change-2
Media contact
Maverick Flores
Communications Campaigner, Greenpeace Philippines
[email protected] | +639176211552
Katrina Eusebio-Santillan
[email protected] | +63 999 229 6451
Digital Campaigner, Greenpeace Philippines