Quezon City, 22 July 2024—Reacting to President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr’s State of the Nation Address today, Greenpeace climate campaigner Jefferson Chua said:
“Action on Climate Justice was conspicuously absent from President Marcos’ SONA—this is a great disappointment for the Filipino people.
“We know that climate impacts are already devastating agriculture, people’s livelihoods and jobs, education and health. Intense typhoons destroy homes, roads and bridges. And it is costing our economy hundreds of billions of pesos every single year.
“President Marcos has put the Philippines in a good place by securing a seat in and hosting the Loss and Damage Fund Board. The next step is for him to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for the destruction caused by climate impacts.
“Greenpeace is calling on President Marcos to go beyond words and symbolic gestures and enact a climate justice agenda.[1] The president should lead the call for a full, fast, fair and funded fossil fuel phase-out, and payment for climate damages from oil and gas companies.”
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Note to editors
[1] Greenpeace released the paper A Climate Justice Agenda for the Philippines: How the Marcos administration can turn words into action last 18 July 2024. Greenpeace Philippines is calling on the Marcos administration to establish a Philippine Climate Justice Agenda that will:
- Exact climate accountability from fossil fuel corporations;
- Demand and secure payment for climate loss and damage;
- Steer the country towards a full, fair, fast and funded fossil fuel phase out; and
- Redirect the economy towards greener and more equitable systems.
Concretely, what President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. can do now is:
- Speed up the passage of, and enact, the Climate Accountability Bill;
- Start the process of litigating carbon majors for climate impact damages to the Filipino people;
- Review and cancel memorandums of understanding (MOUs) from line agencies such as the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) with companies that perpetuate the climate crisis and who likewise deny their responsibility in the climate crisis;
- Champion the Climate Damages Tax and other innovative sources of finance to ensure not just adequate funding, but, importantly, payment from corporations, for loss and damage;
- Stop all plans for nuclear energy, fossil gas expansion and other false solutions; and
- Enable policy reforms to reshape the economy to enable climate justice and community resilience.