March 5, 2024
The Climate Reality Project Philippines was honored to be invited to a recent panel discussion attended by a group of volunteer judges working hand-in-hand with the US Embassy of the Philippines Cultural Exchange Program.
During the panel “In Defense of Independent Judiciary: A Colloquium on the Rule of Law and Climate Justice” held at the Far Eastern University – Institute of Law in 2024, Nazrin Castro, manager of Climate Reality in the Philippines, highlighted the increasingly important role of the judiciary in climate action around the world.
Here is a summary of points Castro conveyed to the judges from the perspective of climate science and global and national frameworks:
Through the Paris Agreement, which was adopted in 2015, nations committed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and to mobilize support for vulnerable developing countries, following the principles of climate justice, equity, and common but differentiated responsibilities.
The treaty recognizes that highly industrialized countries are largely responsible for the climate crisis, and therefore gives them a greater responsibility to reduce their emissions and provide financial, technological, and capacity-building support to developing countries.
The treaty is legally binding within national jurisdictions. In the Philippines, the Executive Department prepared the Instruments of Accession, which the Philippine Senate concurred on. The government submitted its ratification to the UN in 2017.
Following this, nations submitted their respective Nationally Determined Contribution, in support of the goal to hold global warming to 1.5 C. Developed countries also needed to mobilize $100 billion of climate finance, starting in 2020, as support for developed countries. But on these two fronts, developed countries have so far failed to deliver.
The NICC report also found that “carbon majors within the Philippine jurisdiction may be required to undertake human rights due diligence and provide remediation.” This suggests that it is open to the possibility of penalizing polluters, particularly carbon majors, who are found to be responsible for human rights violations caused by climate change.
While the report is non-binding, it should set a precedent that can influence our legal institutions. The report’s recommendations could lead to the development of new laws and policies that would hold polluters accountable, as well as give Filipinos new tools to seek justice from polluters.
Current emissions need to fall by 45 percent by 2030 to ensure we are within the climate threshold of 1.5 C. And even if we achieve this, we also need to ensure that we have the resources and the capacity to adapt to climate impacts in a world that is warmer by 1.5 C. But seeing our progress now, we are failing on both.
The judiciary should now be a part of addressing the climate crisis by serving as an instrument in holding polluters accountable. We need to work on greening our courts in the sense that it could foster more accountability and prohibit actions to curtail the effects of climate change at the pace and scale we need it to.
In emphasizing these three points to the judiciary, Climate Reality Philippines urged the judiciary to:
The Philippine courts must realize their important role in providing justice for vulnerable populations who are at constant risk and danger due to climate change, despite not causing it.
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