World’s largest
carbon producers ordered to respond to allegations of human rights
abuses from climate change
By GREENPEACE Southeast Asia
July 27, 2016
MANILA – Companies
responsible for the majority of fossil fuel products that have been
manufactured, marketed, and sold since the industrial revolution and
have contributed the lion’s share of cumulative global emissions of
industrial CO2 and methane, have been ordered to respond to a legal
petition that triggered the first-ever national human rights
investigation concerning climate change.
The Commission on Human
Rights of the Philippines (CHR) today sent copies of the complaint
filed by the Petitioners, including disaster survivors, community
organisations and Greenpeace Southeast Asia, as well as an official
order, to the headquarters of the world’s largest investor-owned
fossil fuel and cement producers. The order enjoins the companies to
submit answers to the Commission within 45 days.
The 47 companies that were
sent the petition and the order to respond to allegations of human
rights abuses resulting from climate change include Chevron,
ExxonMobil, BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Total, BHP Billiton, Glencore,
Suncor and ConocoPhillips.
“We’ve been affected for so
long by storms, droughts…by extreme weather, now made worse by climate
change. We just want to live a decent and peaceful life, without fear
and being at the mercy of big corporations that only care for their
profits. Our only choice is to defend our rights. We want those most
responsible to be held accountable. We want justice and to regain the
ability to protect the little that we have left for our children”,
said Veronica “Derek” Cabe, one of the petitioners from Bataan, where
communities are fighting against coal storage facilities and proposals
for a new coal-fired power plant and where one of the community
leaders advocating against coal was shot dead on 1 July 2016.
The Commission launched a
probe in 2015 looking into whether the world’s largest carbon
producers are violating or threatening to violate the human rights of
all Filipinos by significantly contributing to global climate change
and failing to reduce emissions, despite having the capacity to do so.
The Petitioners have asked
the Commission, among other things, to require the companies to submit
plans on the steps they will take to eliminate, remedy and prevent the
devastating effects of climate change, in a country known to be one of
the world’s most vulnerable to these effects. The complaint also asks
the Commission to monitor people and communities acutely vulnerable to
the impacts of climate change.
“Ultimately, those who have
profited most from pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere must
bear the burden of preventing the havoc already being wreaked by
climate change. This is the first step in that process. The courageous
Filipino people are the first to put the world's largest carbon
producers on notice that they must account for their emissions," said
Jennifer Morgan, Executive Director of Greenpeace International.
The Commission’s actions are
unprecedented. For the first time, a national human rights body is
officially taking steps to address the impacts of climate change on
human rights and the responsibility of private actors. After the
company responses are received, the Petitioners anticipate hearings
will commence in the Philippines in October 2016.
The Petitioners are calling
the companies’ business plans into question and asking governments
around the world to keep fossil fuels in the ground. This is another
signal to the fossil fuel producers from people that they cannot
continue business as usual.
There is a growing global
climate justice movement working to strengthen the capacity of people
around the world to take action inside and outside the courts.