Greenpeace Philippines and the National Anti-Poverty Commission-Victims of Disasters and Calamities (NAPC-VDC) jointly launched ‘Here Comes the Sun: Climate Justice-based Recommendations for Protecting Communities from Extreme Heat’ on Tuesday.
The new report identifies critical policy and governance gaps hindering the country’s response to extreme heat, and proposes pathways toward climate accountability, including but not limited to the immediate passage of House Bill 4420, or the Climate Accountability Bill (CLIMA Bill).1
The report’s findings, gathered through seven focus group discussions conducted in Navotas, Bataan, Laguna, Siargao, Eastern Samar, Tacloban City, and Cadiz City, were presented during a media forum in Quezon City.
It features a case study of 71 fisherfolk across Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
Fisherfolk consistently rank among the poorest of the 14 basic sectors, with a poverty incidence of around 27.4 percent to 30.6 percent, nearly double than the national baseline of 15.1 percent, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.
The analysis highlights how worsening extreme heat is increasingly threatening the health, livelihoods, and overall wellbeing of fishing communities.
While the Philippine government has existing policies and programs that include heat as one of their triggers, the report finds that it lacks an overarching policy that addresses heat stress as a holistic phenomenon.
The report also notes that the country’s disaster response and climate financing policy architecture related to heat stress remains fragmented across sectors, limiting the government’s ability to respond effectively.
Critical gaps likewise persist in treating heat stress as a climate justice issue that requires coordinated, adequately funded responses.
The report also raises the important question of who should pay for the rising costs of heat-related loss and damage.
Currently, much of the financial burden still falls on the public and the Philippine government through growing, increasing the risk of worsening public debt, while allowing the world’s biggest climate polluters to evade accountability.
As the Philippines faces increasingly frequent and intense extreme heat driven by climate change, along with the effects of the ongoing El Niño phenomenon, the report calls on the government to urgently:
Fulfill its obligations under the International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion on the responsibility of states in respect of climate change. This includes the national government to urgently head the recently filed House Resolution 1074, developing a scientifically defined criteria for declaring a state of imminent disaster, and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to certify as urgent a climate-lensed Magna Carta of Workers in the Informal Economy Bill and CLIMA Bill to protect vulnerable sectors, with the latter aiming to make climate polluters pay.
Revamp sectoral integration mechanisms beyond ‘mainstreaming,’ toward integrated governance mechanisms for addressing extreme heat.
Recenter human rights and human wellbeing as the primary organizing principles in sectoral responses to heat stress.
Pursue climate finance grounded in justice and reparations to address heat stress, ensuring that those most responsible for the climate crisis bear the costs of climate impacts.