WARSAW — World leaders at the United Nations-backed climate change talks in Warsaw agreed the aftermath of super typhoon “Yolanda” (international codename: Haiyan) in the Philippines should serve as a wake-up call to make serious commitments to address climate change.
But various civil society groups, however, said the disaster underscored the need for leaders to “act urgently” to address the issue and avoid further catastrophic consequences.
Marcin Korolec, Poland’s environment minister, told negotiators from around 190 countries that the powerful typhoon in the Philippines, which has claimed thousands of lives and affected millions, is a “great human tragedy, unforgettable, painful and awakening.”
“I say awakening because it is yet another proof that we are losing this unequal struggle between man and nature. It got the better of us yet again, and will continue to do so in the future if we do not close ranks and act together to strike back,” said Korolec, who sits as President of the 19th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
“I can promise you that here in Warsaw and over the next 12 months, I will spare no effort to find a consensus,” he added.
The two-week climate talks begin Monday with the goal of a global legal agreement to be completed by 2015.
At the opening session of the climate change talks, UNFCCC executive secretary Christiana Figueres pointed to the sobering realities of climate change and the rise in extreme events that climate science has long predicted, including the devastating super typhoon that just hit the Philippines.
Other country leaders present at the conference also expressed their sympathies to the Philippines.
Climate justice now
Climate Change Commissioner and lead negotiator Commissioner Naderev Sano told InterAksyon.com in an interview that governments need to take “drastic action now to ensure that we prevent a future where super typhoons are a way of life.”
“We need to act now because we refuse, as a nation, to accept a future where super typhoons like Haiyan becomes a regular fact of life. We refuse to accept that running away from storms, evacuating our families, suffering the devastation and misery, having to count our dead become a way of life,” Sano stressed.
At the opening session, Sano received a standing ovation after he delivered anemotional speech that echoed the one he gave at the talks in Doha, Qatar last year as typhoon “Pablo” was ravaging parts of Mindanao.
A three-minutes moment of silence was also observed at the session to sympathize with the victims of the typhoon.
On the other hand, Climate Change Commission Secretary Maryann Lucille Sering, also head of the Philippine delegation, told InterAksyon.com that the world “could no longer afford any delay to act on climate change” amidst series of climate-induced disasters such as Yolanda.
“What kind of evidence does the world still need before we get all our acts together to address climate change? We may have suffered this first but eventually most of us will, at one point or the other, will suffer climate change impacts,” Sering stressed.
She hoped that in the face of the disaster in the Philippines, governments would heed developing nations’ plea to act urgently on climate change.
“We are still however in denial that this is the new normal, but we are now left with no choice. We are heavily impacted by climate change and disasters year after year. We do not wish to happen to anyone what has happened to our country,” Sering added.
Civil society groups demand climate action
The Pan Africa Climate Justice Alliance clamor that rich nations fulfill and implement their commitments under the UN climate convention, “in order to fairly share a necessary ‘emissions budget,’ and avoid catastrophic climate change.”
“We watch with horror what has happened in the Philippines, and know that it is happening in our homes too.” Mithika Mwenda, the Secretary General of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, said at a press conference here. “I don’t know how rich countries can ignore the facts being screamed by mother nature, nor the cries being made by the world’s poor — the time has come to cut climate changing causing emissions and to cut them deep.”
According to Vicky Tauli-Corpuz, Executive Director of Tebtebba, an indigenous activist from the Cordillera region in the Philippines, rich nations should make strong, ambitious commitments on cutting greenhouse gas emissions and provide poorer countries climate finance and technology to adapt to the changing climate.
“Governments present here in Warsaw should take into account the experience of the Philippines as a concrete example of the devastating impact of the worsening climate change. Rich nations must deliver and help poor nations to cope with the changing climate,” Tauli-Corpuz said.
Voltaire Alferez, national coordinator of climate network Aksyon Klima Pilipinas, said in a statement that the “ country cannot afford low expectations and stagnant discussions toward a 2015 climate deal, set to be implemented only in 2020. The rest of the world cannot do so, either.”
“Climate change has stacked more odds against us, setting us up for strong typhoons such as Haiyan and already costing hundreds, if not thousands of lives of Filipinos. We demand concrete action in Warsaw, owed to us by the richer countries which are mostly responsible for global warming,” Alferez said.
“We hope that the governments who have expressed their solidarity and sympathy for our losses become allies of the Philippines towards a climate deal for all countries, whether developing or developed,” he added.
On the other hand, WWF-Philippines vice-chair and CEO Jose Ma. Lorenzo Tan said in a statement that, “climate change effects are becoming more and more unpredictable and there’s no way to know which town or city will get hit next. Years of development can be undone by one storm. Can we afford to be ill-prepared when the next calamity approaches?”
At the conference Figueres highlighted the key areas in which the climate negotiations can make progress.
“We must clarify finance that enables the entire world to move towards low-carbon development. We must launch the construction of a mechanism that helps vulnerable populations to respond to the unanticipated effects of climate change. We must deliver an effective path to pre-2020 ambition, and develop further clarity for elements of the new agreement that will shape the post-2020 global climate, economic and development agendas.”
Report by Imelda V Abano
photo: OCHA / IVAbano
Originally published at Thomson Reuters Foundation http://www.interaksyon.com/article/74637/yolanda-jolts-world-leaders-at-un-climate-talks-as-ph-civil-society-demand-urgent-action