Declare climate crisis, Duterte urged
Credit to Author: Eireene Jairee Gomez| Date: Thu, 05 Dec 2019 16:29:45 +0000
ENVIRONMENT group Greenpeace has called on President Rodrigo Duterte to issue a “climate emergency” declaration following the pounding suffered by the Bicol Region from Typhoon “Tisoy” (international name: “Kammuri”).
Along with other activists and youth climate strikers, Greenpeace members marched on Thursday to Mendiola in Manila to deliver an open letter asking Duterte to immediately issue an executive order declaring a climate emergency that would address the climate crisis and its impact on the lives of Filipinos.
The group urged the government to put climate urgency at the center of all policy decision-making from the local to national level; hold fossil fuel companies accountable for their role in driving climate change; ensure the country’s rapid and just transition to a low-carbon pathway through a massive uptake of renewable energy solutions, phase-out coal; and stop all plans for future coal and fossil fuel investments.
“By declaring a climate emergency, the Philippine administration acknowledges that resolving this global crisis should be a priority by the national government and the international community,” said Jefferson Estela, co-founder of Youth Strike for Climate Philippines.
“However, the government must show clear efforts in addressing the factors contributing to this crisis after declaring a climate emergency and we, the Filipino youth, are striking for climate because we are not just talking about our future here but the future of the next generation,” he added.
Mitzi Jonelle Tan, convenor of the Youth Advocates for Climate Action in the Philippines, said the Filipino youth want “climate justice.”
“We are fed up with the willful ignorance of multinational companies and world leaders of countries that are contributing the most to environmental degradation and the climate crisis. We will not stay in our classrooms when the threats to our country and to Filipinos are so clear and apparent,” she added.
The environmental activists also demanded that other countries, particularly industrialized nations, should enhance their emissions reduction ambitions in order to meet the Paris Agreement’s aim to limit global temperature rise within 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Nearly 500,000 people in the Bicol Region were forced to flee their homes because of the destructive force of Typhoon Tisoy, whose high winds and heavy rains have triggered flash floods and landslides in some areas, with the provinces of Albay and Sorsogon among the hardest hit.
The Department of Agriculture pegged damage to agriculture at P1.93 billion.