KATOWICE, POLAND 15 December 2018 – The Philippines made an impassionate appeal to world leaders to “demonstrate climate action and leadership” as the 24th Conference of the Parties (COP24) climate conference in Katowice is going into its decisive second week.

“Climate action and leadership resolve must be demonstrated by all. Now is the time for leadership, not cowardice,” said Climate Change Commission (CCC) Secretary Emmanuel M. De Guzman. “There is no excuse for inaction among the world’s most powerful nations.”

Secretary De Guzman delivered this strong message at the launch of the “Jummemej Declaration” of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) event on which calls on COP 24 to take key decisions on ambitious outcome in Katowice.

At COP 24, governments from 196 nations are struggling to complete the complex details needed to implement the ‘rulebook’ or work program to implement the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, as well as to heed the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming and the ‘Talanoa’ Dialogue by recommending revised and enhanced climate change plans or the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) by 2020.

The Philippines is among countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change such as rising sea levels, prolonged droughts floods and changes in rainfall patterns.

“It is our moral duty to be clear about where we stand. We are in Poland in the name of the children of tomorrow whose interests we must secure, compelled by science and duty,” said Secretary De Guzman, also the head of the Philippine delegation to the United Nations climate talks. “The success of these talks will determine countless lives and existence. The choices leaders weigh here spell the difference between annihilation and hope that we may live far into the future with requisite happiness, peace, and security.”

Developing countries and small island states also pointed out to welcome and respect the IPCC special report on 1.5 degrees Celsius, saying that the only way to keep average global temperatures from rising above 1.5C by the end of the century is to phase out the use of fossil fuels by 2050.

The Philippines is highly regarded in the negotiation process at the climate talks as a leader of developing countries. As Chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum in 2015, the Philippines, on behalf of 48 developing countries, led the advocacy for the ambitious global warming threshold of 1.5C.

“Enough of politics. Believe science. No to extinction of the vulnerable,” Secretary De Guzman said. “The success of these talks will determine countless lives and existence. The choices leaders weigh here spell the difference between annihilation and hope that we may live far into the future with requisite happiness, peace, and security.”

In 2013, the Philippines experienced the onslaught of Super Typhoon Haiyan that wiped out homes, killed more than 7,000 lives, displacing more than 4 million people and destroyed infrastructure and agricultural lands leaving those who survived homeless and without any source of income. Damages reached almost US$5 billion.

“We find ourselves again in this familiar stage, brought to this precipice by indecision and indifference. How can we, the world’s most vulnerable, find the courage to act both for 2020 and for tomorrow?” Secretary De Guzman said, adding that “small, low-lying countries have “contributed next to nothing, yet we suffer the brunt”.

However, Secretary De Guzman said the Philippines is “making a stand and giving all” it can on climate action, saying that a resilient low carbon future is the only pathway that will secure inclusive, enduring development for all.

“Indecision and weakness in the face of the greatest peril humanity has ever faced is nothing less than immoral. Enough of indifference and inaction. The decades of apathy and procrastination must end here in Katowice,” he stressed.

Secretary De Guzman said, “now is the time to call out countries that do not stand with us. Instead of condemning our nations and the Earth to a future menaced by runaway climate change, we ask you to stand for the good. Stand for the people.”