Climate change tops list of global worries for young people, says Amnesty

ABS-CBN News | December 10, 2019

People attend an Extinction Rebellion protest against climate change as the COP25 climate summit is
held in Madrid, Spain December 8, 2019. Javier Barbancho, Reuters
MADRID - Four out of 10 young people view climate change as one of the most important issues facing
the world, an Amnesty International survey on the state of human rights showed on Tuesday.

The Amnesty poll, released on Human Rights Day, asked more than 10,000 people aged 18-25, in 22
countries across 6 continents, to pick up to 5 major issues from a list of 23.

Of those, 41 percent selected climate change, making it the most commonly cited issue globally.

“For young people, the climate crisis is one of the defining challenges of their age," said Kumi Naidoo,
Amnesty's outgoing secretary general, noting the huge surge in young people protesting about it on the
streets.

"This is a wake-up call to world leaders that they must take far more decisive action to tackle the climate
emergency or risk betraying younger generations further,” he added.

Among global worries, pollution was ranked second at 36 percent and terrorism third at 31 percent.

At the national level, however, corruption, pollution, economic instability and income inequality came
out as the top 4 concerns, with climate change pushed into fifth place.

"We are living inside a failed system," said Naidoo. "The climate crisis, pollution, corruption and poor
living standards are all windows on an alarming truth about how the powerful have exploited their
power for selfish and often short-term gain."

When asked who should take the most responsibility for protecting the environment globally, 54
percent of respondents said governments, 28 percent individuals and 14 percent businesses.

And 63 percent agreed governments should take the wellbeing of their citizens more seriously than
economic growth.

FUTURE COSTS

On Tuesday, meanwhile, a law firm representing 16 children from around the world, including Swedish
teen activist Greta Thunberg, sent letters to the governments of Norway and Canada.

Those countries' support for their oil and gas industries breached the children's rights under the UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child, the letters said.

"Expanding your oil and gas production will lock in decades of greenhouse gas emissions, jeopardizing
the universal rights of all children to life, health, and culture," said the letters.

"As children, the petitioners are the ones who will inherit the worst impacts of the climate crisis and
bear the future costs of the decisions you make today," they added.

The 16 children, who also include 14-year-old US activist Alexandria Villasenor, in September filed a
complaint with the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child against five countries over their carbon
emissions.

The new letters came after the Philippines unveiled on Monday the findings of a four-year inquiry into
the human rights impacts of climate change in the Southeast Asian country and the contribution of 47
"carbon major" companies to those impacts.

Its Commission on Human Rights, which heard harrowing testimony from typhoon survivors, concluded
that the companies played a clear role in causing global warming and its effects.

Based on the evidence, it said fossil fuel companies could be found legally and morally liable for human
rights violations arising from climate change.

Scientists say burning fossil fuels for industry, energy and transport is responsible for the vast majority
of the greenhouse gas emissions heating up the Earth.
Greenpeace Southeast Asia Executive Director Yeb Saño said a growing number of climate-related legal
cases are now being heard or filed across the world.

"With the conclusion of this investigation, we believe many more communities will take a stand against
fossil fuel companies that are putting profit before people," he said in a statement.

At the UN talks on Monday, Rose Whipple, an 18-year-old activist from the Santee Dakota tribe in
Minnesota, in the United States, spoke about how she and other young people had tried - and failed - to
stop approval for a tar sands oil pipeline, arguing it would contaminate their sacred river water.

"We (indigenous people) are on the frontline doing this work today, right now," she told journalists. "We
deserve to be listened to, and we also deserve to have our lands back."

PH 2nd most affected by disasters, extreme weather worldwide: climate index

ABS-CBN News | December 06, 2019

The Philippines was the second most affected country when it comes to weather-related losses in 2018,
according to the recently released Global Climate Risk Index.

It is second only to Japan, which has been severely affected by heat waves and drought last year.

"The Climate Risk Index shows that climate change has disastrous impacts especially for poor countries,
but also causes increasingly severe damages in industrialized countries like Japan or Germany," David
Eckstein of Germanwatch said in a statement.

"Countries like Haiti, Philippines and Pakistan are repeatedly hit by extreme weather events and have no
time to fully recover,” he added.

“That underlines the importance of reliable financial support mechanisms for poor countries like these
not only in climate change adaptation, but also for dealing with climate-induced loss and damage."

After Japan and the Philippines, rounding up the top 10 countries most affected in 2018 were Germany,
Madagascar, India, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Rwanda, Canada and Fiji.

The report notes that in the past 20 years, there have been half a million fatalities directly linked to
12,000 extreme weather events worldwide.

“The economic damages amounted to approximately $3.54 trillion (calculated in purchasing-power

parity, PPP),” the report said.

Red Constantino, Executive Director of the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities, said the situation
in the Philippines and other vulnerable countries is “unacceptable” as “those who are least responsible
for the problem (of climate change), are the ones who are suffering the most.”

While the Philippines was battered by strong typhoons, countries like Germany, Japan and India were
subjected to “extended periods of heat,” which reflects “the long established link between climate
change and the frequency and severity of extreme heat.”

Studies also showed links between climate change and extreme weather.

Currently, world leaders are in Madrid, Spain for the annual climate change negotiations. In the past
months, there has been stronger clamor for more drastic actions to curb carbon emissions.

Vulnerable countries like the Philippines have also called on industrialized countries to financially
support their climate adaptation and mitigation measures.

“We have been in a state of climate emergency for decades now, and the situation is not getting any
better--and it will not get any better unless the world leaders gathering for the COP25 in Madrid show
concrete commitments towards the promises they made in Paris,” said Greenpeace Southeast Asia
executive director Yeb Saño, who was a former climate change negotiator for the Philippines.

Saño, who is in Madrid to observe the negotiations, said the Philippine government should officially
declare a climate emergency and to “hold fossil fuel companies accountable for the harms to Filipino
people brought on by their activities that are driving the climate crisis.”
He also called for the “country’s rapid and just transition to a climate-friendly development,” which he
said should be done through renewable energy solutions and the phase-out of coal-fired power plants.

Greenpeace asks Duterte to declare addressing climate change a priority

Philstar.com | December 4, 2019

A group of environmental campaigners called on President Rodrigo Duterte to declare climate

emergency in the Philippines—a country vulnerable to the catastrophic effects of severe weather made
worse by climate change.

In an open letter, Greenpeace Philippines asked the president to make a climate emergency declaration,
which would make climate change and its impacts on Filipinos a top government priority.

The call came as the country recovers from the onslaught of Typhoon Tisoy (Kammuri), which lashed
southern Luzon and the Eastern Visayas Tuesday.

The Philippines—an archipelagic nation—is hit by an average of 20 tropical cyclones each year, killing
hundreds and putting people in disaster-prone areas in a state of constant poverty.

“Year after year, Filipinos are identified among the most impacted globally by this crisis, an emergency
situation by big polluters, fossil fuel companies who have lied and covered up about how their
operations have been driving the climate crisis and who have been raking in trillions in profits at the
expense of millions of people who suffer from its impact,” Lea Guerrero, Greenpeace Philippines country
director, said,

“Filipino communities have been leading the way in exposing the big fossil fuel corporations most
responsible for the emissions heating up the planet. But now it’s time for our government to formally
acknowledge this urgent crisis and declare a climate emergency,” Guerrero added.

Greenpeace said the climate emergency declaration should be in the form of an executive order, which
should include “critical political decisions and concrete actions” for the government.

Prioritize renewable energy, move away from fossil fuels

The declaration should put climate urgency at the center of all policy decision-making, hold the fossil
fuel industry accountable for driving climate change and inflicting harm on Filipinos and demand
industrialized nations to make ambitious emissions reduction target, the group said.

It added that the climate emergency declaration should ensure the country’s rapid and just transition to
a low carbon future by prioritizing renewable energy sources as well as phase out and stop plans for
future fossil fuel investments.

Fossil fuels, when burned, release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, making them major
contributors to global warming.

A Greenpeace report released last month found that coal remains the dominant energy source in the
Philippines despite the country’s commitment to move away from fossil fuels and shift to clean
renewable energy.

The group’s call also came as world leaders attend the 2019 UN Climate Conference—known as
COP25—which is aimed at finalizing rules for the 2015 Paris Agreement and setting up a fund to help
countries already reeling from droughts, floods and storms.

The Paris accord calls for blocking global warming at well below 2 degrees Celsius and 1.5 degrees
Celsius, if possible.

The United Nations-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded in its 2018 report
that global carbon dioxide emission must drop 45% by 2030 and reach “net zero” by 2050 to cap
temperature rise at 1.5 degrees Celsius.