40-day Climate Walk to
Tacloban kicks off in Luneta
Press Release
October 2, 2014
MANILA
—
Climate change advocates from various sectors urged world governments
to “walk their climate talk” as they launched the Climate Walk, dubbed
as “A People’s Walk for Climate Justice.”
From the starting point at
“Kilometer Zero” in Rizal Park, Manila, the groups will walk 1,000
kilometers in 40 days to arrive in Tacloban, ground zero of Yolanda (Haiyan),
on November 8, exactly a year since the super typhoon first made
landfall.
The festive send-off program
for the Climate Walk included Manila Vice Mayor Isko Moreno, National
Youth Commissioner Jose Sixto 'Dingdong' Dantes III, Climate Change
Commissioners Heherson Alvarez and Yeb Sańo, running priest Fr. Robert
Reyes, representatives of a broad group of civil society
organizations, and the Catholic Church.
“The Climate Walk is dedicated to all people in the Philippines and
around the world who confront the reality of climate change. It aims
to empower communities and help them become resilient to the impacts
of disasters and climate change,” Sańo said before they departed from
Luneta.
The advocates called on governments to do their fair share in keeping
global warming below the tipping point to save the Filipino people,
and all others who are most vulnerable to climate change.
"Peoples and nations around the world should act with haste to
significantly cut, if not end, all our ill ways that are causing our
worsening climate. And we should begin talking green not because it is
fashionable but because we care for the welfare of younger Filipinos,
our future," Dantes said.
The Walk was launched a week after two landmark events in New York:
The People’s Climate March, in which 400,000 people marched to call
for urgent climate action, followed by the United Nations Climate
Summit, wherein over 160 world leaders announced their commitments to
solve the climate crisis.
“This walk is about fighting back! We need to unite as a people and
demand a climate treaty that will give justice and compensation to
countless families, communities and municipalities that are already
being severely affected and devastated by climate change impacts. We
must reclaim our people’s rights to a safe, secure and sustainable
future,” Von Hernandez, Executive Director of Greenpeace Southeast
Asia stated.
“The importance and urgency of addressing climate change demands more
than action. We need to fundamentally change the way we live, and the
way things work in our planet. We need to galvanize public actions
towards solutions to fight climate change,” said Nityalila Saulo,
musician and core member of the artist group, Dakila. “It is time for
a climate revolution and switch the power from world leaders to the
people to decide our survival.”
Climate Walk
People who are deemed most vulnerable to the effects of climate change
– farmers and fisherfolk – as well as members of youth, faith groups
and the public in general are invited to join the Walk, which will
traverse parts of Metro Manila, Laguna, Batangas, Camarines Norte,
Camarines Sur, Albay, Sorsogon, Northern Samar, Samar, and Leyte.
On November 8, the participants will cross San Juanico Bridge towards
Tacloban City. The Walk is also expected to continue on to communities
in Cebu, Negros, Panay Island, and Palawan, provinces that were
likewise heavily damaged by Yolanda.
Climate and disaster resilience toolkits, a set of resources which can
be used to enhance community planning for climate change and assist in
the protection of communities from climate disaster risks, will be
handed over to LGUs and communities in the areas reached by the
Climate Walk. Along the path of the walk, events will also be held in
select towns to highlight the different issues of climate change
affecting these areas, including (and not limited to) deforestation,
mining, and renewable energy. This can help form the narrative of the
concrete demands that can define the Walk. These events will be
educational as well as creative and celebratory and will include
concerts, film showings, mural painting, prayer sessions, dance and
music festivals.
Walk the talk
Participating civil society organizations also urged the current
administration, as well as global leaders, to take concrete actions in
solving the climate crisis.
“While we support the Climate Walk’s global call for climate action,
we also challenge the Aquino administration to walk its own climate
talk,” said Melvin Purzuelo, convener of the civil society network
Aksyon Klima Pilipinas. “We hope that this initiative to roll out local
climate plans will only be the start of concerted efforts to make
local and national policies coherent, particularly in adaptation,
energy, and finance.”
“The government should step up by demanding deep emissions cuts from
the US and developed countries, by demanding from them real solutions
that would ensure concrete adaptation programs and projects on the
ground and by abandoning its bias for corporations and businesses in
the entire rehabilitation process and put the people at the center,”
said Gerry Arances, National Coordinator, Philippine Movement for
Climate Justice (PMCJ), a national grassroots movements advancing
climate justice.