Climate Justice - ACT Alliance

Philippines: Accountability needed to achieve climate justice

By Nerisse Klaire Kassey Pamaran, National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP)

There is assistance for those affected by typhoons, but organisations cannot meet all the needs created by the climate crisis. Climate justice includes reducing emissions and just climate financing for the most vulnerable countries. PHOTO: NCCP

Anamarie Rivera, a mother of four, had just given birth to her youngest daughter when last September’s Super Typhoon Noru hit her hometown of Jaen, Nueva Ecija in the Philippines. “We went to my sister-in-law’s house when the winds got stronger”, she says. “I was only able to get my kids out … I wasn’t able to save any of my belongings.” Anamarie’s house was made from light materials with a makeshift roof of galvanized iron, a type of housing that is common
in Filipino communities living in poverty.

The typhoon struck several provinces in the northern part of the Philippines, causing widespread damage not only to housing, but to farms and the livelihoods of farming communities. “It completely destroyed our crops,” says Ashley Arante, whose mother worked in the rice fields. “We had a hard time meeting our daily expenses afterwards.”

The stories of Anamarie and Ashley illustrate just two of the struggles endured by millions of Filipinos affected by the climate crisis. Climate change impacts are measured not only by the strength of typhoons, but also by the lasting impact they have on already-vulnerable communities.

In the case of Super Typhoon Noru, aid came from the most rural of local churches through to international agencies. ACT Alliance responded to the immediate needs of typhoon victims through the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP). But given the typhoon’s extensive and lasting damage, organizations can only do so much.

On average, at least twenty typhoons make landfall in the Philippines every year. Five of these will be destructive. This destruction has become such a normal occurrence in marginalized Filipino communities that they are being praised worldwide for their resilience and optimism in otherwise hopeless scenarios.

According to the Global Climate Risk Index 2021, the Philippines is one of the countries that is most vulnerable to the long-term impacts of climate change. The country must address the loss and damage induced by the climate crisis and implement adaptation and mitigation measures to achieve a people-centered, low-carbon future.

The Philippines’ contribution to world greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is minuscule compared to the G20, yet studies show that the country’s emissions increased by 114 percent from 1990 to 2017, largely due to the energy and industry sectors. The Philippines needs to take genuine steps towards climate crisis mitigation. This includes banning practices such as deforestation, illegal mining and logging, and plastic waste pollution, which are known to harm the environment. The country must also address the vulnerabilities of most Filipino people, who live in poverty, and strengthen their adaptation capacities at the local level.

At the global level, the NCCP believes that the climate crisis must be addressed by holding major GHG contributors accountable for the impacts of climate change. The climate crisis is “a consequence of the historical impact of the patterns of consumption and industrialization by what are now the wealthiest and so-called ‘developed’ nations in the world,” they say.

To be accountable, the wealthiest nations must use climate finance, technology transfer, and capacity building to support the most vulnerable countries, such as the Philippines. They must also keep their own carbon footprint in check.

Nerisse Klaire Kassey Pamaran is a youth volunteer with the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), an ACT member.

New study on Human Mobility and Climate Change

By Christian Wolff

The interconnections between climate change and human mobility have lately been discussed with increasing fervor and frequency. ACT Alliance and its members have been working on this issue for several years. Now, in collaboration with ACT member Bread for the World, we are publishing a new analysis entitled, “Addressing the Protection Gap – Human Mobility and the Climate Crisis in International Frameworks”, compiled by Dr. Katherine Braun as lead author.

There is growing recognition that climate change affects people’s ability to move and their decisions about movement, and that, apart from addressing the root causes of climate change and ensuring climate justice, more equitable access to safe migration opportunities is needed, alongside strengthened protection for people on the move, or those unable to move. ACT and our partners and networks have made considerable progress in advocating for this over the last few years – as reflected in the recent agreement to establish a loss and damage financing facility, or in the inclusion of a framework for more diverse and more easily accessible regular pathways in the Global Compact for Migration.

The next steps in our journey towards positive change for affected populations will lie in furthering our common understanding of how their diverse needs in different contexts can best be served and their human rights and dignity can be most effectively protected. Some of the answers to this will be found in climate change processes, others in humanitarian approaches, still others in global and regional migration policies. The report attempts to provide an overview of how the underlying issues are connected, and how advocates – including our membership and allies – can best use the different international frameworks to make rights-based progress on this topic. In doing so, it examines the place of human mobility in climate policy, its treatment in international human rights instruments and in migration governance, as well as looking at implications for financing.

Please follow this link to access the report. We also invite you to read this blog post by the lead author and our Bread for the World colleague Sabine Minninger.

Christian Wolff is the ACT Alliance Migration and Displacement Programme Manager

Ideas for climate advocacy: new ACT Climate Justice publication

Ideas for climate advocacy, 40 pages of practical strategies for climate justice, is now available. “We must keep hope alive and I think this publication can help us,” says Mattias Söderberg, co-chair of the ACT Alliance Climate Justice Reference Group. “We can make a difference and achieve climate justice if we take action now!”

Divided into three sections, the book covers much of what Forums, members and regional climate justice CoPs will need to improve the effectiveness of their climate advocacy.

The first section explores ACT’s understanding of climate justice based on the foundations of our faith and as a faith-based alliance. It includes a summary of the most important scientific findings on the climate crisis drawn from the recent 6th Assessment Report of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). It examines how past and future climate impacts threaten the sustainable development of all people, but especially those in the world’s most vulnerable communities. COP26 is studied in detail to introduce climate policy and the Glasgow Climate Pact. This section ends by exploring the climate policy challenges of the coming years.

The second section looks at advocacy practice. Using concrete examples, the publication shows how advocacy for climate justice at local, national, and international levels can be carried out in relatively simple ways. The aim is to raise the level of ambition in national and international climate targets, adaptation programmes, climate finance and in addressing climate-related Loss and Damage. This section also explains the basics of the Paris Climate Agreement and the resulting state obligations, and designing climate adaptation programmes to be gender responsive. Finally, it presents the Climate Justice Module of the ACT Advocacy Academy as the central training tool of our Climate Justice Programme.

The third section highlights the advocacy activities of ACT’s Climate Justice Programme. Three examples illustrate how ACT Communities of Practice (CoPs) from different world regions advocate for higher climate ambition. The examples illustrate the different priorities of ACT regions for climate justice. A bibliography and list of useful resources concludes the publication.

We wish you good and inspiring reading. Download here.