For decades, nations have identified catastrophic biodiversity loss and climate change as two of the most critical issues that need immediate action. The UN Climate Change Conference with world leaders and big businesses in Dubai has the potential to be the game-changing global assembly we’ve all been waiting for, or turn out to be another broken promise and monumental failure at the expense of every living thing’s future.
Biodiversity encompasses all living things on Earth. Each person’s life is perpetually interwoven with every species that belongs in nature’s web. Humans can breathe, eat, drink, seek shelter, and benefit from many more ecological services solely because of the existence of diverse life forms on our planet. Yet instead of protecting our reason for success and survival, the Earth’s global temperature keeps hurtling towards the 1.5°C point of no return along with the relentless eradication of biodiversity due to unsustainable human activities.
“The era of global boiling has arrived,” said United Nations secretary general, António Guterres. With the 1.1°C increase in temperature since the 1880’s, the world is already suffering from onslaughts of extreme weather events and devastating climate-related disasters that lead to the loss of lives and vital natural resources. Crossing the 1.5°C threshold can only unleash repercussions that are far graver, more frequent, and more widespread, leaving no creature nor corner on Earth unscathed.
Biodiversity loss and climate change are two global emergencies that are intrinsically linked, and each year, world leaders have the greatest power to create pivotal opportunities for the nations to synergize sustainable economic growth with climate justice and biodiversity conservation.
HARIBON’s Clarion Call
HARIBON joins the people’s call for world leaders, major corporations, and key entities in authority, especially the top CO2 emitters globally, to put an end to climate injustice and immediately materialize significant steps to prevent the human-induced global warming from reaching and exceeding the 1.5°C tipping point. Failure of the people in power to take urgent, non-negotiable action during the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP28) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates will rob every person and living being of any livable future.
While it was announced that the summit shall focus on four paradigm shifts, namely fast-tracking energy transition and emission phaseout by 2030, revisiting climate finance, adopting a biodiversity-first approach, and mobilization for the “most inclusive COP in history”, HARIBON emphasizes the pressing demand for…
- …key decision-makers and the biggest culprits locally and globally, such as but not limited to officials from high-income countries and prominent businesses, to take accountability for the damages and implement concrete, equitable climate financing systems for nature-based solutions (NbS) and community-driven conservation programs across the globe
- …the Philippine government to promptly and sternly commit to the reform, enactment, and stricter enforcement of environmental laws and policies nationwide
- …the general public to start with climate crisis acknowledgment, awareness, and individual transformation
Addressing the biodiversity and climate crises is a shared responsibility, and this year’s conference may be everyone’s final opportunity to come together and avert fatal and irreversible destruction of lives and livelihoods.
Accountability and equitable climate financing from governments, enablers, and the biggest CO2 emitters
The major contributors to global carbon emissions and the enablers of the worsening climate crisis must pay for the extensive loss and damage that highly vulnerable countries are unrightfully suffering from.
Despite contributing merely less than 1% to the world’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the devastating effects of climate change in the Philippines are enormous and Filipinos are disproportionately impacted. Extreme weather events such as super typhoons, crippling droughts, changing rainfall patterns, and rising sea levels have led to deaths, decreased food production, and billions of pesos lost due to damages to infrastructure and agriculture (Philippine Climate Change Assessment Report).
HARIBON is in solidarity with Filipino communities and other civil society organizations in demanding the energy, transport, agriculture, industrial, waste, and land-use sectors along with other businesses operating in the Philippines for increased and consistent financing of climate research and of climate change mitigation and adaptation programs that use effective, inclusive, and economically-equitable nature-based solutions, especially projects that sustainably restore the country’s terrestrial and marine key biodiversity areas (KBA).
HARIBON also persists in advocating for the empowerment and transformation of more citizens in places heavily affected by climate change into devoted leaders that efficiently safeguard ecosystems and wildlife from threats and impacts. HARIBON’s shared successes with grassroots communities through initiatives such as the Forests for Life Movement consistently show that forest restoration strategies that mutually benefit the ecosystems and the residents dependent on them remain one of the best interventions for climate change.
Reform, enactment, and stricter enforcement of Philippine environmental laws and policies
The Philippines is at the apex of the global discourse and outcomes of COP28 hold immense weight in the Filipinos’ future. Our country houses more than 70% of the entire planet’s plants and animals along with some of the richest and most important ecosystems in the world, but the lack of government-led climate change mitigation actions, unregulated land conversion, and other unsustainable movements that drive deforestation, pollution, and climate change have put a multitude of species and habitats uniquely found in the Philippines at risk of extinction. Our chances of survival will plummet even faster if the Philippine government continues to tolerate a system that keeps the Philippines as a biodiversity hotspot and a system that allows the unjust demise of native species and its protectors.
Successful and sustained conservation efforts in the Philippines require governing bodies that fiercely protect its natural heritage and its entire constituency. HARIBON puts even more pressure on the Philippine government now to act as the shield and deterrent against rampant overexploitation and illegal conversion of ecosystems.
Philippine government authorities and key agencies must rigorously enforce environmental laws and policies nationwide, continuously reform existing legislations with weak sanctions and loopholes prone to abuse, and enact new and stricter measures that staunchly defend nature and its guardians. This includes the swift passage of the Sustainable Forest Management Act, the National Land Use Act, and other green bills that will require the integration of biodiversity conservation components in development planning across all levels of governance, a full and just transition to renewable energy to reduce the country’s carbon emissions, and stopping unethical projects like the Kaliwa Mega Dam, among others.
In addition, the Philippine government must lead and support organizations like HARIBON in achieving the country’s part in the ambitious Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) and the Paris Agreement of 2015 targets, which aims to conserve 30% of terrestrial, inland water coastal and marine areas by 2030 (“30x30”) and to require a 43% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by the same year respectively.
Awareness and individual transformation
The top offenders and enablers, enterprises and governments respectively, hold the greatest responsibility and capacity to change the trajectory but that does not mean that the common people/ordinary citizens should not do their part. Each and every individual has a role to play no matter how big or small, and climate action does not require drastic changes overnight. HARIBON asks the public to start by learning more about the climate crisis we inevitably face and the importance of biodiversity in addressing it.
Let us make a well-informed stand and exert substantial influence on decision-makers, compelling them to act. Our collective voices as constituents calling for conservation actions have the power to increase pressure on decision-makers and leaders to heed these calls and implement transformative policies.
Closing
The direct and traumatic experiences of Filipinos losing their homes, livelihoods, and loved ones from climate change consequences have compelled them to dedicate their lives to restoring the Philippine environment not only for themselves but for their communities and future generations.
However, the sacrifices of undeserving victims will be in vain, their hard work pointless, and their efforts futile, if for the 28th time, COP becomes mere tokenism and results do not abolish unjust systems that are self-serving, corrupt, and fueled by greed.
We need all hands on deck. We need the unshakeable commitment of every person on the planet, especially leaders and decision-makers to join forces to address the biodiversity and climate crises.
The time to course-correct is NOW. COP28 is one of mankind’s defining moments and may be the biggest and final opportunity to avert further irreversible damage to lives and livelihoods. It’s now or never.
The fate of the planet rests in our hands.
