Communities urge carbon majors to pay up for heating planet
MANILA, Philippines — Members of communities affected by fossil fuel operations and extreme weather events in the country called on the world’s most polluting companies to pay reparations for their contributions to the climate crisis.
Representatives of the Nuclear and Coal-Free Bataan Movement, Young Bataeños for Environmental Advocacy Network (YBEAN) and Greenpeace Philippines on Thursday delivered letters to the local offices of Chevron and British Petroleum, and the offices of legal counsels for ExxonMobil, Marathon Oil, Apache Corporation and ConocoPhillips Corporation.
They demanded the five carbon majors — or companies with the largest carbon emissions — to pay up for the economic and human costs caused by climate change, stop plans for fossil fuel expansion, and commit to a just transition away from fossil fuels.
“Our communities live with the reality of climate impacts. We feel it in our pockets and in our guts, with each climate disaster carving up wounds that will never heal. Despite our suffering, you will continue to drill for more oil and expand your fossil fuel business,” read the letter signed by representatives of 35 communities and organizations across the country.
“The science is as clear as ever: Fossil-related activities accelerate climate change to catastrophic levels, wrecking lives, livelihoods, communities and cultures in the Philippines and around the world,” they added.
Jochelle Magracia, a member of YBEAN and resident of a community near a coal-fired plant in Bataan, also called on the government to take concrete steps to stop the country’s dependence on planet-warming fossil fuels.
“The coal plant destroyed our waters, which used to be very clean. It has almost killed the lives and livelihoods of the fishermen and those in our community who depend on what the environment provides,” she told Philstar.com.
In a report released in 2022, the Commission of Human Rights said the willful obfuscation of fossil fuel and cement companies of the risks posed by climate change and the obstruction for efforts toward a global transition to renewable energy are immoral.
The CHR recommended that carbon majors desist from activities that undermine the findings of climate science, cease further exploration of new oil fields and keep fossil fuel reserves in the ground, and contribute to a Green Climate Fund for the implementation of mitigation and adaptation measures.
The CHR report stemmed from the petition filed by civil society organizations and typhoon survivors in 2015, which asked the commission to investigate the responsibilities of carbon majors such as Shell, Chevron, Exxon, BP and Total for human rights impacts aggravated by climate change.
At the COP27 climate talks in Sharm El Sheikh, a loss and damage fund was created, which is an important win for poor nations ravaged by strong cyclones, devastating flooding, extreme droughts and sea level rise.
However, it will likely take several years to hammer out details of the fund for climate victims such as the timelines for establishing the facility and the sources of funding.
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