In an impassioned speech at the 19th Conference of the Parties (COP) of the Kyoto Protocol, the Philippines' chief negotiator, Yeb Sano, called on the parties to take immediate, drastic action to tackle the climate crisis.
IISD VIDEO: Philippines delegate Naderev Saño COP19 Warsaw
We cannot sit and stay helpless staring at this international climate stalemate. It is now time to take action. We need an emergency climate pathway.
I speak for my delegation. But more than that, I speak for the countless people who will no longer be able to speak for themselves after perishing from the storm. I also speak for those who have been orphaned by this tragedy. I also speak for the people now racing against time to save survivors and alleviate the suffering of the people affected by the disaster.
We can take drastic action now to ensure that we prevent a future where super typhoons are a way of life. Because we refuse, as a nation, to accept a future where super typhoons like Haiyan become a fact of life. We refuse to accept that running away from storms, evacuating our families, suffering the devastation and misery, having to count our dead, become a way of life. We simply refuse to.
We must stop calling events like these as natural disasters. It is not natural when people continue to struggle to eradicate poverty and pursue development and gets battered by the onslaught of a monster storm now considered as the strongest storm ever to hit land. It is not natural when science already tells us that global warming will induce more intense storms. It is not natural when the human species has already profoundly changed the climate.
Disasters are never natural. They are the intersection of factors other than physical. They are the accumulation of the constant breach of economic, social, and environmental thresholds. Most of the time disasters is a result of inequity and the poorest people of the world are at greatest risk because of their vulnerability and decades of maldevelopment, which I must assert is connected to the kind of pursuit of economic growth that dominates the world; the same kind of pursuit of so-called economic growth and unsustainable consumption that has altered the climate system.
He concluded his speech by announcing that he would fast for the duration of the conference, in solidarity with those in his homeland struggling to find food, until a meaningful outcome is in sight.
For those who ask, "Is the COP still relevant?", Mr. Sabo offers a compelling response. His belief that the UNFCCC process can still be the "Project to save the planet", and his commitment to that cause, is humbling.
A transcript of Mr. Sabo's speech can be found here.
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