Climate action that protects people, planet, urged
By Vin Se
“This is not the world we want to inherit…our leaders, who probably won’t experience any of this, are committing their children and grandchildren to terrible, possibly unlivable future,” Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines national coordinator Xian Guevarra said devastating impacts of warming planet laid out in leaked draft report by United Nations body reinforce the call for urgent plans and actions from national and world leaders.
Draft report by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projects how species extinction, ecosystem collapse, more widespread disease, unlivable heat, rising seas, and other crushing impacts of climate change are accelerating.
“To think that, before my generation turns 40 or 50 years old, we could already be living in a country experiencing constant deadly heat waves, food and water shortages, and cities like Manila and Cebu could be partially underwater due to rising sea levels,” he added.
As an archipelagic nation in the Pacific, Philippines is among countries most impacted by climate-related catastrophes. It is particularly exposed to threats of tropical cyclones, averaging 20 annually.
Climate crisis is exacerbating Philippines’ exposure to more frequent and extreme weather changes, rising temperatures, heavier rainfall, and sea level rise.
YACAP called for more immediate plans and actions that protect both people and planet.
“What we’re experiencing now with climate crisis is here to stay…we need empowering, contextualized climate education and strong adaptation plans defined by the most impacted communities themselves,” YACAP international spokesperson Mitzi Jonelle Tan said.
“Industrialized countries that have led us to this crisis have climate debt to pay for their historical and current carbon emissions…a stop to emissions and an immediate and just transition to green industries is not just their responsibility, it’s reparation for injustices,” she added.
Under 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, global warming must be limited well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels while pursuing efforts for a tougher ceiling of 1.5°C.
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