Pinoys march for climate justice

MANILA, Philippines - Two days ahead of the climate summit in Paris, thousands of Filipinos yesterday joined the global call for a binding agreement that would address the threats and mitigate the effects of climate change.

Organizers of the Global Climate March estimate that around 10,000 Filipinos have joined various activities held in different parts of the country.

Six different groups marched in major roads in Quezon City and converged at the Quezon Memorial Circle to highlight their demands for world leaders participating in the Conference of Parties (COP21) in Paris starting tomorrow.

Dexter Cardenas, chief of the Quezon City’s Department of Public Order and Safety traffic operations division, said almost 3,000 advocates gathered on Commonwealth, Kalayaan, East, North and Visayas avenues to join the march.

The groups then converged at the Quezon Memorial Circle where they had a short program at around 8 a.m. on Saturday.

“They caused traffic when they crossed from one venue to another, but our traffic enforcers were able to control them. The traffic only lasted for a few minutes,” Cardenas said.

Each of the groups carried climate-related themes: energy transformation, right to food, land and water, justice and reparations for affected peoples, protection of our common home, jobs and just transition and the youth.

“The time for responsible climate action has long been overdue,” Anna Abad of Greenpeace Southeast Asia said.

“We are one with the people in calling on government leaders to avert climate catastrophe and make the fossil fuel industry liable for the injustices being wrought by their polluting activities. We hope that Paris will not let us down.”

Advocates urged world leaders, including President Aquino, to come up with a bold and meaningful agreement that would address the urgency of the climate crisis with decisive, just, fair and ambitious actions.

“We have had it with mere posturing and pandering statements from world leaders, including our own, when it comes to the climate. If they are truly committed to solving this crisis, they will heed the call for changing the system of energy, production and their paradigm of development. The time to act was yesterday,” said Gerry Arances of the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice.

“The time for system change is now,” he added.

Joel Palma, president of World Wide Fund for Nature Philippines, called on leaders to keep temperatures from rising by implementing measures such as transformation of energy systems and shift to clean and renewable energies.

“We march because we do not want to live in fear of the next storm, nor the time when rising oceans will swallow up our islands. We march because we know that our collective call can convince COP21’s leaders to do the right thing,” Palma said.

Other demands of the advocates include the protection of people’s right to food and water, delivery of climate finance to empower people and setting of global targets to keep temperature rise below 1.5 degrees.

“We are marching in the Philippines because it is about our survival – thousands of Filipinos have lost their lives because of climate change. We are marching because of the urgency – we only have a small window of time to prevent climate chaos,” said Lidy Nacpil of the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development.

“We are marching to demand justice – those who are least responsible for climate change suffer its worst impacts, those who contributed the most to the problem are pledging the least of their fair share of the efforts to solve it. We are marching because it takes the power of collective action to dismantle the power of corporations, to compel politicians to do the right thing or step aside, to pursue our vision for a better world,” she added.

“The Philippines, a tropical archipelago besieged by an average of 20 storms yearly, is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change. In recent years it has been experiencing significant climate change impacts such as super typhoons and other extreme weather events when the average global temperature rise reached 0.8 C above pre-industrial levels,” said Denise Fontanilla of the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development.

Some 60 marches, as well as over 2,300 events, around the world are being held as a lead-up to the COP21.

The Global Climate March consists of 60 other major marches, plus more than 2,300 events, in over 150 countries on the eve of the COP21 to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris. – Robertzon Ramirez, Rhodina Villanueva