Duterte Calls on Rich Nations to Fight Climate Change as Typhoons Batter Philippines

The Philippines was still recovering from the strongest storm of 2020 when another typhoon, the 21st to hit the country this year, aimed straight for its largest island of Luzon.

Typhoon Vamco, known locally as Ulysses, killed at least 73 people and forced hundreds of thousands to evacuate after making landfall between November 11 and 12. The storm hit the Philippines just one week after Super Typhoon Goni, known locally as Rolly, left an island of 260,000 without power and destroyed tens of thousands of homes.

Vamco devastated low-lying rural areas in the north of Luzon, where communities were flooded after authorities released water from several dams, including the large Magat Dam on the Cagayan River. The two storms, along with October’s Typhoon Molave, caused over $200 million of agriculture damage in Luzon, authorities said. The storms battered the Philippines as the country continues to cope with Southeast Asia’s worst coronavirus outbreak.

In their aftermath, President Rodrigo Duterte has been on both the giving and receiving end of criticism, falsely claiming in a sexist rant that his political opponent, Vice President Leni Robredo, has not assisted in disaster relief while being lambasted himself for receding from public view as Goni struck the country.

He also took aim at wealthy nations for their inaction on fighting climate change, saying they have a “moral responsibility” to deliver climate justice and protect countries like the Philippines, which have been left vulnerable to larger and more frequent storms due to rising sea-surface temperatures.

“Developed countries must lead in deep and drastic cuts in carbon emissions,” Duterte said at November’s Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit. “They must act now, or it would be too late. Or if I may say, it is too late.”

The Philippines is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change. A country of over 7,000 islands heavily reliant on agriculture and fishing, it is impacted by around 20 typhoons each year. The surrounding sea levels are rising at a faster rate than the global average and, according to a conservative estimate by the New Jersey-based Climate Central, could inundate the homes of around 6.8 million Filipinos within 30 years.

That estimate assumes that humans will reduce emissions in line with the 2 degrees Celsius target of the 2015 Paris Agreement. At present, only six countries are meeting targets set to allow that goal to be reached. The Philippines is one of those six countries.

The European Union member states, along with other major contributors to climate change such as Russia and Japan, are failing to meet their climate objectives.

President Donald Trump aired his ambition to withdraw from the accord in 2017 and the United States officially exited the agreement on November 4, 2020. U.S. President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to rejoin the Paris Agreement on January 20, the first day of his term. The recent storms in the Philippines only reinforce the need for the world’s largest emitters to act urgently.

Domestic environmental policy in the Philippines will have to be revisited as well. Duterte has a mixed record on the environment and his public opposition to mining and land reclamation projects has been offset by his support of environmentally troubling China-backed mega-dams and infrastructure projects.

Duterte’s appointment of the late Gina Lopez as environment secretary, who led a crackdown on mining companies while serving on an interim basis, was rejected by the Senate in 2017 amid corporate opposition to her policies.

He has also permitted crackdowns on indigenous environmentalists in disaster-prone areas of the Philippines, such as the highlands of Mindanao and the sites of controversial dam projects in Luzon, in which state security forces have labeled prominent activists as terrorists without evidence.

Some indigenous leaders, such as the Mindanao-based Jomorito Guaynon and Ireneo Udarbe, have been arrested and detained without trial after campaigning against mining projects and palm oil plantations. Many others are regularly threatened by what they claim are state-affiliated actors.

Last month, an army general who is a leading figure in the country’s anti-communist task force falsely accused several celebrities of being communist sympathizers due to their association with progressive organizations, including environmental campaigners. Leading environmental activists in Manila have repeatedly been threatened with potential arrest under the Duterte administration.

Duterte is not wrong to point his finger outward at the developed world’s major carbon emitters, but there are plenty of voices calling for environmental justice within the Philippines. Instead of listening, Duterte is choosing to silence them.