Tony La Viña, Ben Te, and Jayvy R. Gamboa
In July 2024, Typhoon Carina swept through the country. The heavy rainfall hit Metro Manila and nearby regions and its intensity was evident from the extreme flooding that occurred.[1] In the typhoon’s aftermath, President Bongbong Marcos Jr. was quoted saying that the extreme floods were a result of climate change and added by saying that it was worsened by improper trash disposal. “We just had a problem. I hope people will learn. Please don’t simply throw your waste because these can clog our pumps[,]” the President said in Filipino.[2] In effect, he was implying that both climate change and a lack of discipline among Filipinos were to blame for the Typhoon’s devastating impact. The President was only half-right.
Indeed, Typhoon Carina was yet another manifestation of the worsening climate crisis. Devastation caused by what climate scientists call “extreme weather events” are now expected to occur more intensely and more frequently.[3] For Typhoon Carina, enhanced by the Southwest Monsoon and Tropical Cyclone Butchoy, it had a recorded 24-hour rainfall that exceeded that of Typhoon Ondoy in 2009.[4] The death toll reached 46, affecting over 6.1 million individuals, forcing 36,000 people to take shelter in thousands of evacuation centers nationwide, with millions more compelled to take shelter elsewhere.[5] In this regard, the President correctly pointed out that these can all be attributed to climate change.
Differentiated responsibility and vulnerability
It is wrong, however, to dismiss climate change and its adverse impacts as the mere result of lack of discipline among citizens. This is a reductive view of climate catastrophes that science has long rejected. Empirical data shows that the total historic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of Carbon Majors, the industries most responsible for climate change globally, far exceeds the collective emissions of individuals. According to the 2017 Carbon Majors Report, 100 fossil fuel producers were responsible for 52% of total global industrial GHGs since the dawn of the industrial revolution.[6] In 2015, the same Report found that only 224 companies were responsible for 72% of the annual global industrial GHG emissions.[7]
In the Philippines, the National Inquiry on Climate Change Report traced emissions from the 90 largest carbon producers and found that it contributed roughly 57% of the observed rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide, nearly 50% of the rise in global average temperature, and around 30% of global sea level rise since the late 1800s.[8] Emissions linked to Carbon Majors in general were also responsible for roughly 16% of the global average temperature increase and around 11% of the global sea level rise within the same time frame.[9]
Understanding the differentiated responsibility between individuals and industries is a cornerstone for understanding the concept of climate justice and accountability. While it is true that every person, business, and country have contributed to climate change in one way or another, some are still more responsible than others. Similarly, everyone will certainly experience the impacts of climate change, yet some would be more vulnerable than others. Thus, those who are more responsible for climate change should be held accountable correspondingly. Likewise, those who are more vulnerable, such as climate vulnerable countries in a broader sense and individuals belonging to marginalized communities or disadvantaged groups in a grassroots sense, deserve greater protection from the effects of climate change and equitable compensation for whatever loss or damage they may have suffered.
Mechanism for climate accountability
It is in this context of varied responsibilities and vulnerabilities among individuals, communities, and corporations that the Climate Accountability (CLIMA) Bill was filed. The CLIMA Bill, now being discussed in the House of Representatives’ Committee on Climate Change led by Rep. Edgar Chatto of Bohol as House Bill No. 9609,[10] seeks to institute policies and measures for the very purpose of realizing climate accountability in the country. This includes providing mechanisms for reparations and accountability for loss and damage caused by climate change.
The bill recognizes key concepts in the field of climate science and advocacy such as due diligence for businesses in the conduct of their operations to ensure that they do no harm to the environment and to take proactive steps in limiting their emissions consistent with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.[11] It also explicitly recognizes the greater responsibility of industries that have been proven to be historically the most responsible for climate change such as oil, gas, coal, and cement – industries collectively known as the Carbon Majors.[12] The bill further builds on this recognition and has adopted the Polluter Pays Principle which provides that those that have caused harm to the environment must pay for the damage that it caused.[13]
Furthermore, the CLIMA Bill seeks to institutionalize a Climate Change Reparation Fund which allows victims and survivors of climate change to seek redress or compensation for the loss and damage they may have sustained from extreme weather events.[14] It also provides for rehabilitation or the development of measures for increased protection, sustainability, and resiliency of communities. The objective of the provision is for the Fund to be more easily accessible for members of marginalized or disadvantaged groups that are more vulnerable to the climate crisis.
The fact that it may be the first climate accountability statute in the world and the country’s institutionalized national Loss and Damage mechanism would send a powerful message about the Philippines’ commitment to climate justice. Yet the strength of the bill is not just in its novelty. The bill recognizes important concepts in climate science,[15] adheres to the widely accepted principles in the international climate movement, while also seeking to ground itself by directly addressing the needs and interests of grassroot communities.
Despite its strengths, much remains to be refined in the more technical aspects of the Bill. Further deliberations are needed to ensure that the provisions of the Bill would leave little to no room for ambiguity that could result in legal loopholes to evade accountability. For instance, the bill seeks to require businesses to disclose “climate-related financial transactions.”[16] This term, however, still lacks any clear or more specific definition. In the absence of a more detailed definition, it would run the risk of having the implementing agency interpret it too narrowly so as to exclude many climate-related transactions of businesses that might be of interest to the public.
Other provisions in the bill that would need refinement include the provision of incentives for businesses that observe due diligence and contribute to transition to clean energy.[17] In its current form, the bill would provide incentives for businesses that are doing the bare minimum, rather than actually incentivizing businesses to go above and beyond what they are legally required to do.
Furthermore, it should also expressly mandate the government to provide technical support or assistance to victims and survivors in filing for their claims for reparations. As for the composition of the Climate Change Reparations Board, persons with conflicting interests should be disqualified from becoming members thereof.
Prospects for the Bill
It is with great optimism that various advocacy groups, led by the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center (LRC) and the CSO coalition Aksyon Klima Pilipinas, are pushing for the swift passage of the bill and to ensure that it is not watered down along the way. With the adjournment of Congress soon approaching, there is a rapidly closing window to ensure that the Bill is passed. In doing so, advocates carry the burden of gathering wider support from the public to drive its passage in the current Congress, and if it ever falls short, to ensure that the momentum remains in the next.
For the people that regularly experience flooding, those who reside along the coastline that fear the impending sea-level rise, communities that have faced displacement due to typhoons, and all those who have, in one way or another, suffered loss and felt the devastating impacts of the climate crisis, they must be made aware that survival and resilience are not the only options. There is an opportunity to address the climate crisis head on and part of this includes holding to account those who are responsible. Through the CLIMA Bill, this can become a real possibility.
The CLIMA Act, if passed, is by no means a panacea for climate change and for loss and damage. It is, however, an important step towards restructuring our existing institutions to allow victims and survivors of climate change to be compensated. It also places a greater responsibility on the private sector to ensure that they limit their impact on worsening climate change and to hold them to account when they refuse to do so. These provisions are geared, not only as a rehabilitative measure to approximate solidarity with the victims and survivors, but also as a preventive measure to shape future business behavior and decisions.
The sentiment that climate catastrophes are caused, solely or primarily, by a lack of discipline among individuals is an outdated view. This belief further implies that climate change can be addressed, in the pace that science unequivocally says, through scattered individual efforts without any systemic changes. Yet this archaic understanding of climate change remains prevalent nonetheless and it is reflected in our country’s lack of institutionalized mechanisms for addressing the climate crisis, including loss and damage.
With climate advocates entertaining the idea that the CLIMA Bill can become a law in the near future, it is hoped that a better understanding of climate change can develop in the consciousness, not just of government leaders, but of the public at large, which would drive swifter and more decisive actions. The enactment of the CLIMA Bill is sought without any further delay or unreasonable concessions. Nothing less is demanded by the urgency of the climate crisis.
[1] CARE (2024), Alert Note: Typhoon Carina (Gaemi) + Southwest Monsoon (as of 24 July 2024), ReliefWeb. Available at: https://reliefweb.int/report/philippines/alert-note-typhoon-carina-gaemi-southwest-monsoon-24-july-2024.
[2] Ferreras, V. (2024) Marcos blames climate change, trash for NCR flood. Available at: https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/nation/914767/carina-habagat-marcos-ncr-flood-climate-change-trash/story/ (Accessed: 16 September 2024).
[3] Pörtner, H.O., et al. (2022) Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [H.-O. Pörtner, D.C. Roberts, M. Tignor, E.S. Poloczanska, K. Mintenbeck, A. Alegría, M. Craig, S. Langsdorf, S. Löschke, V. Möller, A. Okem, B. Rama (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA, pp. 37-118, doi:10.1017/9781009325844.002.
[4] Rojas, A. (2024) Carina-enhanced habagat dumps more rain than Ondoy. Available at: https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/2024/7/25/carina-enhanced-habagat-dumps-more-rain-than-ondoy-1059 (Accessed: 16 September 2024).
[5] Argosino, F. (2024) Carina, Habagat and Butchoy killed 46, affected over 6 million – NDRRMC, Carina, Habagat and Butchoy killed 46, affected over 6 million -NDRRMC. Available at: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1969273/carina-habagat-butchoy-killed-46-displaced-over-6-million-says-ndrrmc (Accessed: 16 September 2024).
[6] Griffin, P. (2017) The Carbon Majors Database. CDP Carbon Majors Report 2017. Available at: https://cdn.cdp.net/cdp-production/cms/reports/documents/000/002/327/original/Carbon-Majors-Report-2017.pdf (Accessed: 16 September 2024).
[7] Ibid
[8] Commission on Human Rights (2022) National Inquiry on Climate Change Report. A report by the Commission en Banc V of the Commission on Human Rights. Available at: https://www.greenpeace.org/static/planet4-philippines-stateless/2024/02/6c24f95b-nicc_report.pdf (Accessed: 16 September 2024).
[9] Ibid
[10] House Bill No. 9609 (19th Congress).
[11] Sec. 4-5.
[12] Sec. 10.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Sec. 13.
[15] Section 12 of the Bill mandates the application of attribution science, which provides that scientific data must be analyzed when determining whether an extreme weather event was caused, worsened, or made more frequent by climate change.
[16] Sec. 5.
[17] Sec. 7.