Two Years After Haiyan: Searching for Justice From Rich Countries

Two Years After Haiyan: Searching for Justice From Rich Countries

The mass grave in Tacloban during Haiyan's first anniversary.

The mass grave in Tacloban are lined with white crosses. Survivors who chose to remember their loved ones, even with uncertainty if their bodies were truly found, wrote names on a cross. One cross for each family member who perished in the storm. They placed a photo on the grave, lit a candle, said a prayer.

On November 8, 2013, super typhoon Haiyan hit landfall in the Philippines. It killed more than 6,000 people. Today, at least a million survivors still do not have safe homes to live in. Many are still rebuilding their lives.

While Filipinos are known for our "resiliency" and for still being able to smile despite what comes our way, there are things we can no longer hide behind our smiles. Haiyan is one of them. We still reel from the typhoon that devastated us. And although we keep saying that "The Filipino spirit is waterproof," the truth is it is not. We are people, vulnerable and weak in the face of nature's wrath.

Writer-activist Ninotchka Rosca put it beautifully: "No, we are not resilient. We break, when the world is just too much, and in the process of breaking, are transformed into something difficult to understand."

Haiyan transformed us. We are no longer the same people. The water that used to give us life now drowns us. The cool winds of Christmas that used to kiss our cheek now sweeps away homes. The rains we used to dance under now gives us fear.

In search for justice

While we make sense of such senseless deaths, we remember our departed and continue to seek for justice. Super typhoons like Haiyan are extreme weather events caused by climate change. While the Philippines experience an average of 20 typhoons in a year, there is no doubt that typhoons have become stronger and beyond our capacity to adapt to.

Climate change as we know today is human induced, mostly caused by fossil fuel corporations and rich countries whose carbon emissions have contributed much to global warming. These are the same countries who want to commit as little as possible in the climate negotiations, turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the devastation happening in countries like the Philippines.

"Climate Justice" written on one of the ships swept by Haiyan into the community, damaging houses.

Every year, countries meet at the Conference of Parties (COP) to negotiate about how to solve the climate crisis. Interestingly, year after year in recent years, the Philippines was being ravaged by storms while negotiations were happening. In 2012, it was typhoon Bopha while COP18 in Doha was happening. In 2013 it was typhoon Haiyan while COP19 in Warsaw was happening. In 2014, it was typhoon Hagupit while COP20 in Lima was happening. This year it was typhoon Koppu while pre-Paris negotiations were happening in Bonn.

This year, the 21st COP will be in Paris on December. After 21 years of negotiations, countries are expected to come up with a legally binding agreement that will see all countries take climate action. Developing countries and least developed countries want a strong agreement, nothing token.

What developing countries are fighting for

During the pre-Paris negotiations in Bonn last October, the negotiating blocks G77 and China and the Like Minded Developing Countries (LMDC) showed strong disappointment with the draft of the negotiating text that was presented to the body. It was called "imbalanced" and "lopsided" and was thought to be favorable towards rich countries like the United States.

In the end, in order for negotiations to move forward, countries were allowed to submit proposals of insertions to the text. G77 and China and LMDC inserted their must-have's, among which are: climate compensation through loss and damage mechanism and common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR).

Loss and damage pertains to impacts that could no longer be adapted to and which would not have happened without climate change. Developing countries are asking for climate compensation from rich countries for the losses and damages brought about by climate change. This compensation is different from aid and separate from adaptation finance.

CBDR, on the other hand, is a principle that says all countries have a responsibility to act on climate change but that this responsibility differs based on historical emissions and current respective capabilities of each country.

Tatay Lando is one of those displaced by a typhoon in the Philippines.

Loss and damage and CBDR go hand in hand in the fight for climate justice. CBDR is a recognition that developed countries failed to address climate change and caused harm to other countries. This harm, loss and damage, should then be compensated for. Inside the negotiations, G77 and China have called out rich countries for avoiding the topic on loss and damage, saying that avoidance of the issue is equivalent to climate denial.

Why are these important for developing countries? By acknowledging responsibility through CBDR and by making rich countries liable for losses and damages they have caused and will cause, rich countries will be more committed to taking serious climate action. With loss and damage and CBDR part of the agreement, it is only logical for rich countries to avoid further harm on other countries. This can also lead to more ambitious commitments to mitigate carbon emissions.

No other option but bold climate actions

Two years after Haiyan, we come to a crucial stage in the climate negotiations. We can no longer afford to fail like we did in 2009 in Copenhagen. We are at a crossroad. Whatever road we choose is a choice we will have to live with in the next half century. Will developing countries find climate justice? Can we solve the climate crisis? If we are to make it, we have no other choice but take bold steps and tread a path we have not taken.

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