'Yolanda' survivor: Loss, damage from disasters must be on climate talks agenda
GLASGOW, United Kingdom — November 8, 2013 marked the end of Marinel Ubaldo’s childhood. Ubaldo, then 16, lost her home and loved ones when Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) ravaged her hometown in the Eastern Visayas.
"Eight years ago, at this time, we didn’t have any water or food to eat. We didn’t have any shelter. We were wet and cold. For three to five days, we were just eating whatever we could find floating in the ocean when there were dead bodies floating too," Ubaldo said on Monday during a protest held inside the venue of the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow.
Yolanda, one of the strongest storms to ever hit the Philippines, left at least 6,000 people dead, according to government records. More than 1,000 people listed as missing were never found.
Eight years later, Ubaldo feels that not enough progress has been made and justice for the tragedy that befell her community feels so far away.
"Today, we’re still shouting for justice for our friends and relatives who have lost their lives because of climatic disasters," she said.
Emmanuel Dador, also a Yolanda survivor, says fear still lingers for many of them.
"Since the typhoon was really powerful and a lot of people died, every time it rains, my family cries because it was too traumatic," he said.
Loss and damage
In Glasgow, Ubaldo and representatives from areas most affected by climate change are demanding compensation for the damage caused by the emissions of rich nations.
"We demand that loss and damage must be on the agenda. Not tomorrow, not in the next COP, but now," Ubaldo said.
This, as the summit struggles to produce promised funding to low-income nations to help bolster their defenses against stronger cyclones, rising seas, and other impacts of climate change. The pledge, which was supposed to have been delivered by 2020, is now expected to be attained in 2023.
"We argue this additional need for finance to address loss and damage. Developed countries don't like that idea and they also don’t like the idea of a separate stream of finance. There are ways and practices where adaptation, and loss and damage actions can be integrated, but they’re still not the same," said Sven Harmeling, international climate policy lead of Climate Action Network Europe.
With just 1.1 degrees Celsius of warming so far, countries in all regions of the world are already being battered by climate-linked disasters, leaving millions displaced and inflicting hundreds of billions of dollars worth of damage.
A study commissioned by development organization Christian Aid showed vulnerable countries could see a 20% drop in their Gross Domestic Product on average by 2050.
"We should take COP26 as an opportunity to champion the loss and damage agenda, advance social protection and risk management that avert loss of lives and assets, and fight for technical and financial accountability in the name of climate justice," Ubaldo said.
'I grieve but I rise'
There will be more typhoons like Yolanda or even stronger ones as climate change makes cyclones more intense.
"A lot of people are saying that climate change will happen in the future. It’s happening now, and it’s killing our loved ones. We’ve been losing so much and we cannot lose more lives, more livelihood," Ubaldo said.
As world leaders draw close to the conclusion of the pivotal UN summit, young people, Ubaldo said, will continue to fight for a "hopeful future" that is not riddled with anxiety that another Yolanda will threaten their communities.
As her placard read, "I grieve but I rise."
This story was produced as part of the 2021 Climate Change Media Partnership, a journalism fellowship organized by Internews' Earth Journalism Network and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security.
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