Greenpeace willing to help Duterte in creating climate emergency declaration

Environmental group Greenpeace Philippines said it is willing to assist the administration in creating a climate emergency declaration that would ensure the government would take action on the worsening climate crisis in the country.

President Rodrigo Duterte earlier said that he would look into the recommendation to declare a climate emergency.

“We believe this declaration can provide a much-needed impetus for a whole of government and whole of society approach to cooperate and respond proactively to the biggest challenge face by our country,” Lea Guerrero, Greenpeace country director, said.

“Declaring climate emergency is just a step to achieving climate justice for Filipinos, whose lives, homes, and livelihoods are constantly at risk,” Guerrero said.

Greenpeace urged Duterte to ensure that the government’s actions do not stop at just honoring the country’s commitments to the Paris Agreement but also holding fossil fuel companies—“the world’s biggest climate polluters”— responsible for the climate changes that affected the lives of the Filipinos.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque assured Monday that addressing climate change is on the top of Duterte’s priorities.

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Greenpeace willing to help Duterte in creating climate emergency declaration

Meanwhile, in a separate statement, environmental and climate activists called for establishing a scientific and human rights body that would oversee the implementation of the climate emergency declaration.

“What else is there to consider when there is both a scientific consensus and a human rights imperative to declare climate change emergency in the Philippines? President Duterte must cede the current ‘business as usual’ pathway of leadership to a scientific and human rights body in implementing a climate emergency action plan,” Leon Dulce, national coordinator of Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, said.

Mitzi Jonelle Tan of Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines also called for a moratorium on fossil fuels, big mines, and other projects contributing to the climate crisis.