The case, filed on Wednesday, March 13, at the Tournai commercial court, is the first climate change-related lawsuit in Belgium to target a multinational company.

It follows a case in which thousands of citizens successfully sued the Belgian government to demand stronger greenhouse gas emissions cuts.

A spokesperson for TotalEnergies declined to comment on the case.

Hugues Falys, who farms a herd of cattle in the municipality of Lessines, argues that, as one of the world’s top 20 CO2-emitting companies, TotalEnergies is partly responsible for damage extreme weather did to his operations from 2016-2022.

During that period, successive droughts reduced the yield of his meadows where he grows fodder for the animals – forcing him to buy feed and, eventually, reduce the size of his herd.

“We are an activity completely dependent on the climate,” Falys told Reuters.

He argues TotalEnergies has failed to comply with Belgian law, which states anyone who causes damage must make reparations for it. It is a similar argument to the one used against the Belgian government in the previous climate case.

Falys and three campaign groups joining the legal action are seeking an injunction that would force TotalEnergies to overhaul its business plan.

Their demands include that the company immediately halt investments in new fossil fuel projects, and reduce its oil and gas production each by 47% by 2030.

They also seek damages – which, if awarded, Falys intends to donate to a sustainable farming organization in Belgium. – Rappler.com

The situation was exacerbated during the pandemic, when the government imposed restrictions and prohibited cars and public utility vehicles from plying the roads.

Because of this, many people have turned to biking as an alternative mode of transport. In response, local governments across the country created pop-up bike lanes. The Department of Transportation (DOTr) even opened the 313-kilometer bike lane network in Metro Manila in 2021. 

But just how friendly are Metro Manila’s roads for bike commuters? 

To find out how bike-friendly Metro Manila is, Rappler rode a loop of 120 kilometers around the capital in January for a documentary. Riding 100 kilometers or more is part of the bucket list of many bikers due to its sheer distance and the challenge it poses.

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The loop covered Pasig, Marikina, Quezon City, Valenzuela, Malabon, Caloocan, Manila, Pasay, Parañaque, Las Piñas, Muntinlupa, and Taguig.

The loop went through 21 major roads:

The East Service Road was split into two in the reviews, owing to the completely different conditions of the section from Muntinlupa to Bicutan beside the South Luzon Expressway, and the section from Bicutan Circle to C-5 in Taguig. In the former, there was no bike lane and the road was two-way, making it hard to overtake. The bike lane began northbound after Bicutan Circle.

This brought the total number of assessed road segments to 22.

The accumulated mileage of all roads assessed was 84 kilometers. The rest of the 120-kilometer loop involved inner and connecting roads. 

How we graded bike-friendliness

To assess bike-friendliness, Rappler drew up criteria evaluating the bike lanes using four factors: lane width, road conditions, obstructions, and segregation. 

These are factors that affect a biker’s safety on the road, also take into account the infrastructure the government put in place, and gauge the attitude of other motorists with respect to the lane and the bike commuter.

Only portions of the major roads covered in the loop were measured in the scorecard. 

Lane width was evaluated using the Department of Public Works and Highways’ (DPWH) guidelines. Under Department Order (DO) No. 88 series of 2020, the DPWH prescribes a minimum of 1.22 meters to make way for a one-directional bike lane. The standard should measure 2.44 meters for a bidirectional bike lane. 

Sections without bike lanes were graded an automatic zero. 

Lane widths in Valenzuela and Malabon along Manila North Road differed slightly and were measured separately.

To assess road conditions, Rappler counted the number of manhole covers, potholes, steel plates, and drain grates. 

On sections without bike lanes, manhole covers, potholes, steel plates, and drain grates placed on the rightmost side of the road, or where a bike commuter would most probably pass, were counted.

For obstructions, moving and parked vehicles, pipe laying works, and vendors encroaching on the bike lanes were also counted. 

On sections without bike lanes, parked vehicles, pipe laying works, and vendors on the rightmost side of the road or where a bike commuter would most probably pass were likewise counted.

Rappler did not count moving vehicles sideswiping as there were no lanes whatsoever to count as encroachment. 

We graded segregation based on infrastructure used: dashed painted lines, solid painted lines, solid painted lines with occasional barriers, and solid painted lines with barriers. 

A completely segregated bikeway, as seen only along C-6, got a perfect score. 

We rode the same route another time in February to measure lane widths and assess road conditions. Obstructions were counted from the footage taken by the camera installed on the bike on the day the documentary was filmed in January.

What we found

Ten out of the 22 segments rated poorly – this is 45% of the segments evaluated.

Bike-friendliness of a segment or city does not only rely on infrastructure, but also on quality, maintenance, and people’s attitudes toward active modes of transport.

C-6, which got an excellent score in segregation, failed when it came to obstructions because its wide bike lanes, at 2.95 meters, were predominantly used as parking spaces.

East Avenue in Quezon City was the only bike lane with sections of concrete barriers in the whole loop. It was 1 out of 4 segments that scored the highest under segregation, with a score of 3.

But East Avenue got an average score on obstructions for the same reason, as some of the concrete barriers were already broken – becoming another hazard that bike commuters have to be wary of.

Rizal Avenue, which traverses Caloocan and Manila, scored zero on all factors. The avenue connecting the north to the capital did not have bike lanes.

It had dismal road conditions and many obstructions, such as parked vehicles and several pipe laying works that would push the biker either toward the center or the left lane.

Roxas Boulevard, a major thoroughfare almost synonymous with Manila, got a failing mark. The Manila side of the boulevard did not have a bike lane despite being relatively wider than other roads in the city.

The bike lane along Roxas Boulevard started only from Pasay onwards. Along Parañaque, the lane was just a strip of solid white lines without a bicycle road marking.

Daang Reyna, despite not having any bike lanes at all, scored a 10 because of minimal roadblocks and obstructions. This could be attributed to the socioeconomic profile of the neighborhood, the wide space, and the less stressful environment because of the reduced volume of cars.

Bonifacio Global City (BGC) and C-6 segments scored the highest in the scorecard – but for different reasons.

BGC had better road conditions and little to no obstructions. But while C-6 had better conditions, the segment scored low on obstructions despite having the best segregation among all segments.

In a nutshell:

• Manila – represented by Rizal Avenue and its share of Roxas Boulevard – did not prioritize the establishment of bike lanes. Rizal Avenue got zero on all factors. It had no bike lanes, road conditions were dismal, and obstructions abounded.
• Las Piñas, via Diego Cera Avenue and Alabang-Zapote Road, may have wider lanes than most (both measuring 1.52 meters) but it failed to keep off obstructions. Road conditions were dismal.
• Taguig, via C-6, showed the best bike infrastructure. It was the road segment that got the highest score among others, getting a good rating. However, strict enforcement in C-6 was lacking as vehicles were parked on the segregated bike path.
• Quezon City was the only local government Rappler saw to have ongoing construction of bike infrastructure, while others’ bike infrastructure were slowly diminishing or hardly maintained. It was also the only local government to employ dedicated bike patrollers.
• Almost all of the bike lanes (95%) we passed in Metro Manila only had painted bike strips. Only 4 road segments had the occasional bollards or barriers.

While this report looked at width, conditions, obstructions, and segregation, the bike lane network in Metro Manila could be assessed further by connectivity, materials used on the lanes, and general maintenance.

Nighttime commuting by bike is also a different experience that could be evaluated separately.

Aside from the bike lane network, the quality of the commuting trip of a cyclist also depends on the availability of end-of-trip facilities like bike parking and shower areas in offices and establishments.

A separate road

Painted lanes with no bollards or other forms of barriers still open the bike lane to the encroachment of other vehicles. But this is the only infrastructure that a majority of bike lanes in Metro Manila can speak of.

So what should a bike lane network look like?

“If you want a network, you have to plan the bike lanes,” Jose Regin Regidor, director of the University of the Philippines Institute of Civil Engineering, told Rappler in an interview. “As if it’s a separate road.”

Regidor is one of the research fellows at the National Center for Transportation Studies who helped in formulating the Bike Lane Master Plan back in 2022. This was a joint effort between the DOTr and the United Nations Development Programme.

Even a master plan like this, said Regidor, should be reviewed regularly every three to five years.

Some of the existing popular guidelines for bike lane networks are the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the Netherlands’ CROW Design Manual for Bicycle Traffic (CROW), and the design guide from the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO).

In the Netherlands, more than 25% of trips are done by riding a bike, according to a 2018 briefer by the Dutch research agency National Institute for Public Health and the Environment.

“The number of bicycles in the country outnumbers the amount of people,” the briefer read. “Cycling is part of our way of life.”

This has contributed to a decrease in air and noise pollution, decongestion of roads, increased physical activity among low-income and ethnic minority adults, and economic benefits for users and establishment owners. 

Gaps in design and mindset

In 2022, at the height of the pandemic cycling boom, the DOTr allotted P2 billion for cycling infrastructure in the country. The budget has since decreased in the following years, going down to P750 million in 2023 and P500 million in 2024.

In the same year, the DOTr opened its active transport office, which started as an ad hoc team.

Without any precedent to follow, the government largely based its bike infrastructure guidelines on NACTO since the Philippines’ road configuration is similar to that of the US.

Because of the novelty of Metro Manila’s bike infrastructure, there were design gaps in implementation.

An example would be the bike lane width. Under DO 88, the minimum width is 1.22 meters, but in the middle of implementation, the government had to revise guidelines to 1.5 meters after it became apparent that a 1.22-meter lane was too small, said Eldon Dionisio, project manager at the active transport office at DOTr.

Dionisio told Rappler that many local government units measured the bike lane from the outer rim of the pavement marking when they should have been measuring by operational width or the open space between two lanes.

Another gap in design is connectivity. Right now, there’s a push to remove bike lanes on national roads like EDSA. But Dionisio said this should not be the case.

“One main principle when you’re building a bike lane network is that it should be direct because cyclists use their own energy to move,” Dionisio said in a mix of Filipino and English. “You should provide them the most direct route.”

Beyond the gaps in design and infrastructure, the bigger struggle lies in entities that do not have active transport in their priorities. Dionisio called this a “misalignment of priorities.”

“We encounter, every now and then, apprehensions from different entities – may it be an individual, a group, an office, an agency – against building active transport infrastructure.”

Better public transport

For the longest time, Filipinos think in terms of using cars or commuting by public transport to go from one point to another.

Other modes of transport, like bikes, are seen as a cause of congestion rather than an additional mode of transport that people can use. A common argument against bike lanes is that they only contribute to more congestion of roads. But the conversation must go beyond car users and bikers, said Regidor.

“We’re always pitting the cars and the bikes when, in fact, the problem is public transport,” he said.

The professor said that there’s a natural synergy between good public transport and a working bike lane network.

In other countries in Europe, for example, commuters can take their bike with them on the train so that their bike commute trip is augmented by public transport.

For example, Regidor said that the current state of bike lanes along Marcos Highway could use some improvement, given that the highway is wide and there’s already a rail rapid transit line in the area. 

Currently, the bike lane along Marcos Highway is 1.14 meters wide. At its widest, the bike lane measured 2.2 meters. But the wide lane was painted on the sidewalk and ended abruptly because of a barrier at a right turn where vehicles turn to enter Marikina.

That Marcos Highway remains congested during rush hours means more people are still opting to use cars.

Are people really shifting from private cars to public transport? We need to determine why they don’t.

Jose Regin Regidor

Making headway

Most bike lanes sprang across Metro Manila during the pandemic, when healthcare professionals and frontliners had to use bikes or other modes of active transport to get around. The national government then came out with guidelines for the establishment of bike lanes.

As restrictions eased and people went back to normal, most local governments also neglected to maintain the bike lanes. Bollards were removed, and paint started to fade. But one local government did the opposite by continuing to establish better lanes.

Even before the DPWH released DO No. 88, Quezon City had already started augmenting its 55-kilometer bike lane network that already existed before the pandemic.

According to Alberto Kimpo, assistant city administrator for operations in Quezon City, they used the AASHTO and NACTO guidelines in establishing the city’s bike lanes during the pandemic.

They used an engineering undergraduate thesis written by a staff member, plotting the ideal routes of bike lanes within the city.

Many advocates say that with the right infrastructure, more people will turn to bike commuting to get around.

But this is a problem that local governments have to contend with. Kimpo said that they are still in the process of generating more bike users. In 2021, they counted 22,000 biking trips in a two-week period; in the following year, the number dropped to 19,000 biking trips.

Aside from generating users, there’s also the issue of making do with the limited space available.

“It is a movement, it is a utilization of space that we really need to push as of the moment and to get more users to benefit from it,” Kimpo said in a mix of Filipino and English in an interview with Rappler.

“The roadways are not designed for active mobility. There is also a constant push for road widening.”

Still, Quezon City is continuing efforts to make bike lanes amid the failure of other local governments to maintain the lanes they created during the pandemic. A master plan is on the way.

Currently, the city is endeavoring to construct a Class I bike lane along the Quezon Memorial Circle in collaboration with the DOTr. A Class I bike lane is a designated protected path separate from a motor vehicle roadway. An existing example of a Class I bike lane in the Philippines is located along the Iloilo Diversion Road.

The Quezon Memorial Circle is set to have an elevated 3-meter bike lane made of red asphalt, planting strips, and another lane for pedestrians.

The push to prioritize active mobility relies on a clear vision and political will, said Kimpo.

“Of course, it also follows that the city takes very seriously its commitments vis-à-vis climate change.”

To a certain extent, political will could prevail over funding issues.

“There’s money,” said Kimpo. “Government will always have resources for these things. It’s really just a matter of channeling it towards the right investments that need to be done.” – Rappler.com

Improving active transportation facilities and policies is part of the call of various groups to #MakeManilaLiveable. On Rappler, we have created a dedicated space for stories and reports about liveability in Philippine cities. Learn more about the movement here.

Since the pandemic, more people have turned to biking to get around. As a response, the government put up bike lanes across the metro. To find out how bike-friendly Metro Manila is, Rappler rode a loop of 120 kilometers around the capital in January for a documentary. Riding 100 kilometers or more is part of the bucket list of many bikers due to its sheer distance and the challenge it poses.

The loop covered Pasig, Marikina, Quezon City, Valenzuela, Malabon, Caloocan, Manila, Pasay, Parañaque, Las Piñas, Muntinlupa, and Taguig.

To assess bike-friendliness, Rappler drew up criteria evaluating the bike lanes using four factors: lane width, road conditions, obstructions, and segregation. 

These are factors that affect a biker’s safety on the road, also take into account the infrastructure the government put in place, and gauge the attitude of other motorists with respect to the lane and the bike commuter.

Only portions of the major roads covered in the loop were measured in the scorecard. 

But how safe is Metro Manila for bikers? Rappler’s Iya Gozum biked a 120-kilometer loop in Metro Manila to find out. – Rappler.com

Reporter/writer: Iya Gozum
Producer/field director: Nina Liu
Supervising producer: Beth Frondoso
Video editor: JP San Pedro
Environment editor: Jee Geronimo
Animator: David Castuciano
Graphic artists: Raffy de Guzman, Marian Hukom, Nico Villarete
Director of photography: Jeff Digma
Second camera operator: Errol Almario
Assistant cameramen: Danny Espina, Ramil Cedeno

Improving active transportation facilities and policies is part of the call of various groups to #MakeManilaLiveable. On Rappler, we have created a dedicated space for stories and reports about liveability in Philippine cities. Learn more about the movement here.

In the Philippines, business tycoons are even teaming up for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in Batangas, signaling efforts to quickly mainstream energy transition. LNG is often regarded as a transitional fuel between coal and renewable energy sources.

Each passing year, the threat of breaching 1.5 degrees Celsius in global temperature becomes increasingly real. As the world warms, the world becomes more vulnerable to extreme weather events, rising sea levels, food insecurity, and biodiversity loss.

The world relies on the burning of fossil fuels to generate electricity. Because of dirty energy sources, the sector accounts for three-quarters of global emissions.

Now, countries are scrambling to get the critical minerals needed to build renewable energy sources such as solar or wind power to hit net-zero targets by 2050. But the rush to transition could, in fact, harm the environment and workers, especially those employed in the fossil fuel industry such as coal miners.

Clean energy transition needs to happen faster. But first, it has to be just. That’s why the climate movement, while demanding the urgent shift to renewables, also demands a “just energy transition.”

But what does that mean?

It’s a term thrown around in climate conferences, understood mostly by advocates but remaining a buzzword for many people.

Where did the idea come from?

Francis dela Cruz, advisor for policy group Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities, told Rappler in an interview: “The energy transition is about looking after those who will be displaced by the transition away from fossil fuels like coal into renewable energy sources.”

Dela Cruz, who has been advocating for just energy since the 1990s when discussions revolved around consumer rights, said he first got wind of the concept during the 2014 United Nations (UN) Conference of the Parties held in Lima, Peru.

It was the time when the climate movement and labor unions came together, according to Dela Cruz. “That’s why they were talking about retooling, reskilling.”

Simply put, with just energy transition, workers are placed at the heart of a low-carbon economy.

A labor issue

How will this work?

Private companies, for example, will make sure workers of coal-fired power plants slated for closure will get support. Or the government trains displaced workers and women on, say, assembling and operating equipment found in solar farms.

According to the UN, there is no strict roadmap to implement just transition. “Just transition should not exacerbate inequalities and must be undertaken in a way that supports affected workers,” the UN wrote in a 2023 report.

The international body stressed that there needs to be social safety nets in place and that governments must create decent jobs.

It emphasized the role that labor unions play in achieving net-zero targets. Labor unions can initiate dialogues between employers and workers on compensation during transitions, and they can organize to raise workers’ issues to concerned government agencies.

Citing an example, the UN report said, “In the Philippines, a national trade union federation works with energy cooperatives to promote renewable energy.”

The country wants to increase by 2030 renewable sources in the energy mix at 35% then even higher at 50% by 2040. Under the clean energy scenario in the Philippine Energy Plan, transformation in the sector should reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 12%.

Renewables not without problems

Beyond the labor issues, the energy transition will also affect and can damage the environment.

The increased demand in critical minerals needed to shift to renewables will mean more extraction. This could exacerbate labor and human rights abuses and environmental degradation already entrenched in the industry if left unregulated by governments.

“When shifting away from fossil fuels towards renewable energy, the transformation of energy systems must also ensure responsible minerals extraction, and must not simply shift exploitation and land grabs to new areas,” the UN report read.

Solar and wind farms need vast tracts of land. Vast lands, mostly those used for agriculture, are being eyed by investors for conversion. For instance, in Tarlac, a largely agricultural province, rice farms have already been converted to solar farms. A cost-benefit analysis released in 2021 noted that while there are considerable economic benefits in the conversion of rice farms to solar farms, rice supply for more than 200,000 people a year would have to be foregone.

In addition, wildlife habitats are at risk of fragmentation. When tracts of land get converted eventually to solar and wind farms, this could alter birds’ migration patterns.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said offshore wind power development could affect behaviors of marine species, life cycle stages, and release contaminants that could be absorbed by marine life.

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How justice should look

Despite the new problems that arise with the advent of renewables, just energy transition is opening opportunities for humanity to change existing inequalities.

In a report published in 2022, development organization Oxfam International wrote that given the transition, it’s possible for the world to achieve universal energy access, create green jobs, and protect consumers from volatile fuel prices.

“Without a focus on justice, the transition risks undermining human rights and entrenching existing and historic injustices and inequalities,” the report read.

The transformed energy sector that is a product of a just transition must be affordable, reliable, and accessible to the public. How can this happen? There are a few ways:

Poor countries get financing from both public and private sectors. Countries most vulnerable to climate change impacts are often those that are unable to afford the high upfront costs of clean energy.

More than $1.7 trillion was invested in clean energy in 2023, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The trend continues to increase as powerful countries make strides in investments and energy and security goals.

However, the IEA found that investment remains uneven across the world. Leading the investments is China, followed by the European Union, then the United States (US). China and the US are among the top polluters in the world.

“Advanced economies and China account for 80% of global spending and for almost all of the growth in recent years,” the IEA wrote in its report.

Majority of these investments come from the private sector, according to the IEA.

During the last UN climate summit in Dubai, several countries and organizations launched the Coal Transition Accelerator, which aims to “unlock new sources of public and private financing to facilitate just transitions from coal to clean energy.”

Financing will not only support the establishment of renewable sources, but also the improvement of a weak grid infrastructure that delays connections of already existing farms. This is a problem that pesters not only the Philippines but other countries, too.

This is the same underlying principle of the loss and damage fund, where rich polluters help vulnerable countries mitigate the harmful effects of climate change. (READ: Phaseout of fossil fuels an aspiration ‘we need to afford,’ says DENR chief)

A responsible extractive industry that recycles. The extractive industry is undeniably at the core of the energy transition.

The industry provides the critical minerals needed for components in clean energy, like batteries and solar cells. For example, most electric vehicles now use lithium-ion batteries.

While damage can only be minimized, it will make more economic and environmental sense to recycle the materials mined. For instance, copper, used in cables, turbines, and generators, could be recycled without loss of properties.

Recycling materials can help advance a circular economy in the mining and metals industries, minimizing waste and making sure emissions are not for naught.

However, recycling efforts must be increased to keep up with the fast-tracked extraction of minerals.

Groups, communities should benefit and have a say in development. This does not only mean indigenous peoples and women perfunctorily attending public consultations.

Oxfam International said in a 2022 report that these meetings should “harness local knowledge and real-world experiences to improve the design of [programs] and make them more relevant to affected communities.”

Under Philippine law, indigenous peoples are given agency through free and prior informed consent (FPIC), a mechanism that attempts to enforce their rights over development projects intruding on their territories.

A decade ago, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and German development agency Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit came out with an assessment of the FPIC in the Philippines.

The report said the country’s FPIC is vulnerable to circumvention because of “tricky” mechanisms like community-initiated projects or the certificate of no overlap.

More recent stories on mining and dam projects showed that nothing much has changed in the usual accounts of indigenous peoples imperiled by development projects. Vast ancestral lands are often regarded as spaces that can be utilized for further development. (READ: Indigenous rights clash with solar power project in Ilocos Norte)

Aside from including communities, they should be given energy access, too. When communities can access reliable and cheap power, Oxfam said this could boost productivity of local enterprises, help children finish school, and empower women to work outside the home.

A case study in the report is the off-grid Hilabaan Island in Eastern Samar. Oxfam and a local organization partnered to install six solar-powered streetlights and an off-grid solar-powered system.

The report said the system had been servicing 124 households, increasing security at night, and making care work more efficient for women.

Detecting this problem to be nationwide, Senator Risa Hontiveros filed a bill back in 2022 establishing a solar home system financing program in remote and rural areas in the Philippines. The bill remains pending at the committee level.

“Transition is not without negative impacts,” said Hontiveros during the launch of the Responsible Energy Initiative in January. But she also added that there’s no going back to the old ways, as “relying on fossil fuel is not only [unsustainable] but [also] anti-consumer.”

The Responsible Energy Initiative Philippines, consisting of groups across the renewable energy supply chain, seeks to shape an “ecologically safe and socially just renewable energy transition.”

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Making a living

A just energy transition should not only account for fossil fuel industry workers or residents in need of affordable sources of renewable power; it must also power the farmers and fisherfolk who rely on transport and electricity to eke out a living.

Dela Cruz said a fisherman from Suluan Island in Eastern Samar, for example, will not care about the amount of greenhouse gas emissions he emits by using a diesel generator if that enables him to fish out at sea.

“The context of energy is not just climate, right?” he said. “It’s livelihood.” – Rappler.com

Researchers from the UP Resilience Institute (UPRI) and the Manila Observatory, along with those from the United Kingdom, Netherlands, United States, and Switzerland, assessed the 5-day maximum rainfall during December to February.

On February 6, a landslide occurred in barangay Masara in the gold mining town of Maco, Davao de Oro, killing at least 98 people and devastating homes of residents. Before the landslide happened, rainfall persisted from January 28 to February 2.

“We find that in today’s climate, a heavy rainfall spell like this is expected with a 10% chance in any given year,” the study read.

Because of climate change, a warmer air can hold more moisture that gets released as rainfall.

“This result is in line with what’s expected from basic climate science. With increasing greenhouse gas emissions, the atmosphere is becoming warmer and able to accumulate more water,” said Sjoukje Philip, researcher at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute.

It is also important to note that the Philippines is now experiencing strong El Niño, which should mean drier conditions. “Had it not been an El Niño year, we would have expected the rainfall to be more extreme,” scientists said in the study.

Increased risk to disasters

Aside from the 50% increase in rainfall, disasters in Mindanao are exacerbated by loss of nature, poverty, and reliance on climate sensitive livelihoods such as logging and mining, scientists said.

“Increasing people’s exposure and vulnerability to natural hazards such as flooding and landslides, while limiting coping capacity, these factors are likely to have worsened the impacts of the heavy rainfall.”

Maco had been tagged as highly susceptible to landslides according to government’s geohazard maps. Relocation has not yet happened since a similar disaster happened 16 years ago, even when the area was declared a no-build zone. A community remained and a gold mine continued to operate.

Likha Minimo, a geologist who studied the interplay between development and disasters in Mindanao, said that many areas in Mindanao are high-risk and people are usually left with no choice but to stay where they are despite knowing their vulnerability.

“They have nowhere to go within the local government, or no one can offer them a suitable relocation area,” Minimo said in Filipino during a Rappler Talk interview. “When you say suitable, there’s no risk, [and] they also have a livelihood.”

Minimo is the director for knowledge sharing at UPRI.

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The geologist said that logging and mining are usually conducted in high-risk locations: in steep slopes, volcanic areas where metals are concentrated, or near fault lines.

The study noted that deforestation from logging, mining, and conversion of agricultural lands in the Davao and Caraga regions have intensified since the 1950s. “Deforestation negatively impacts natural water cycles and soil stability, which can increase surface runoff, ultimately aggravating the risk of landslides and floods.”

In interactions with locals and officials in Mindanao for a separate study they conducted in 2018, Minimo said they found there was a lack of prioritizing land-use planning. This is a glaring problem, as the land-use plan is the basis for the zoning ordinance, which will then guide people where they can or cannot build homes.

Another problem is that some zoning ordinances are not updated to adhere to guidelines for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.

“Not all zoning ordinances, if they exist, are responsive to multi-hazards,” said Minimo. “The plan and the legislation are probably outdated. [W]e saw that as one of the main problems in Mindanao.”

Mitigating disasters in Mindanao

The authors of the study recommended the maintenance of a working early warning system that could help leaders make sound decisions.

If only the available rain gauges and automated weather stations in the region were working, more information would have been available to decision makers to enforce preemptive evacuations,” the study said.

“It is critical that both early warning systems and assessment of landslide-prone areas are improved to avoid similar disasters in the future,” said Richard Ybañez, UPRI chief science research specialist.

Aside from the necessary technology, governments should invest in people with the technical expertise, said Minimo.

“We need to invest in people,” said Minimo. “On people who will interpret the data, on people who will reach out to the communities to explain the risks as well.” – Rappler.com

The world likely notched its warmest February on record, as spring-like conditions caused flowers to bloom early from Japan to Mexico, left ski slopes bald of snow in Europe and pushed temperatures to 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 C) in Texas.

While data has not been finalized, three scientists told Reuters that February is on track to have the highest global average temperature ever recorded for that month, thanks to climate change and the warming in the Eastern Pacific Ocean known as El Nino.

If confirmed, that would be the ninth consecutive monthly temperature record to be broken, according to data from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA will publish final figures for February around March 14, according to its press office.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the record temperatures mean that “springtime comes earlier,” according to Karin Gleason, an atmospheric scientist at NOAA said last week.

“I was just in the eastern part of North Carolina yesterday and saw some trees in full bloom with blossoms all over the trees and I’m thinking – It’s February. This just seems really odd.”

People in Tokyo similarly snapped photos of pink cherry blossoms that bloomed about a month earlier than usual, while jacaranda trees that normally blossom in late March have filled Mexico City with purple buds since January.

As snow melted in Europe this month, ski runs turned to mud and sat idle in Bosnia and Italy, while one French resort rebranded its slopes as a hiking and biking destination.

In the United States, temperatures were up to 40 degrees Fahrenheit (22 degrees Celsius) above normal this week, with the town of Killeen, Texas setting a record of 100F (38 C).

The added heat from global warming wreaks havoc on global systems, helping melt glaciers in the poles and mountains, raising sea levels, and driving extreme weather, said Anders Levermann, a physicist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

Record high temperatures in the summer – now underway in Southern Hemisphere – generally leads to a spike in heat-related deaths, said Jane Baldwin, an atmospheric scientist at University of California Irvine.

“Heat is a substantial silent killer,” she said.

Heat waves hit Argentina, Peru, Brazil, and Chile this month, with the hot and dry conditions also contributing to wildfires near Santiago killing at least 133 people.

Gleason said that the El Nino is expected to dissipate by mid-2024 and could quickly shift to La Nina – a cooling in the Eastern Pacific – which might help to break the hot streak toward the end of the year.

Still, NOAA predicts there is a 22% chance that 2024 will break 2023’s record as the hottest year, and there is a 99% it will be in the top 5, Gleason said. – Rappler.com

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, set in permafrost caves on an island halfway between mainland Europe and the North Pole, was launched in 2008 as the ultimate backup for the world’s gene banks to protect plants from war, disease and climate change.

The vault has received samples from across the world, and played an essential role between 2015 and 2019 in rebuilding seed collections damaged during the war in Syria.

On Tuesday, depositors carried crates of seeds into the vault’s entrance, a long narrow structure which juts out of the snow-covered hillside.

Twenty-three seed banks took part, nine of them for the first time, the largest number of newcomers introduced at one single occasion, according to Crop Trust, a non-profit that operates the facility along with Norwegian authorities.

First-time depositors included seed banks in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cameroon, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria and Zambia, Crop Trust said.

The crates arriving on Tuesday contained crops such as beans, barley, cowpea, maize, rice, millet and sorghum, it added.

“Preserving genetic diversity in this Arctic fastness ensures the adaptability and resilience in our crops, guaranteeing food security for generations to come,” Crop Trust Executive Director Stefan Schmitz said.

Many of Tuesday’s deposits were the result of a global 10-year biodiversity project known as BOLD, which is designed to boost global food and nutrition security, the trust added.

With the latest deposit, 111 seed banks in 77 countries have a backup of their plants in Svalbard, said Norway’s ministry of agriculture and food.

The chambers, which are only opened three times a year to limit the seeds’ exposure to the outside world, boast temperatures of around -18 degrees Celsius (-0.4 degrees Fahrenheit). – Rappler.com

Eighty-eight percent (88%) of Filipino adult respondents said climate change has a dangerous impact on their physical health, while 81% said it poses a risk to their mental health.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated climate change’s direct damage costs to health to be between $2 billion to $4 billion per year by 2030.

Climate change is a “threat multiplier” that increases the risk of deaths and the spread of diseases due to extreme weather events, the WHO said.

Among the health risks identified by WHO were heat-related and respiratory illnesses as well as water-borne and food-borne diseases. (READ: How climate change is making the world sick)

The number of Filipinos who perceived climate change’s impact on health was higher than those who said they experienced severe, moderate, and little impacts of climate change.

Eighty-seven percent (87%) of Filipinos felt impacts of climate change the past three years, down by 7 points from a similar survey last October.

Sad but still hopeful?

The recognition of the threat to health and lives had 56% of Filipinos saying they felt sadness, while 43% expressed anxiety. The survey allowed for respondents to give multiple answers. Forty-three percent (43%) said they also felt fear.

Eighty-seven percent (87%) felt negative emotions about climate change, while a minority, 22%, said they have patience, hope, calmness, and courage amid the crisis.

A point higher than those who felt sadness over this predicament, 57% of Filipinos still think that the crisis could be stopped if real actions were to be done.

However, this number of Filipinos exhibiting an optimistic outlook fell by 12 points from October 2023 and 19 points from December 2022.

Meanwhile, those who believe that the crisis was now beyond humanity’s control rose by 10 points from October 2023 and 16 points from December 2022.

Going by recent surveys, it seems that Filipinos’ hope that humans could do something about climate change was slowly diminishing.

Despite the souring outlook, a big majority of Filipinos still believe they can do something to at least reduce climate risk.

Seventy-four percent (74%) of respondents agreed to the statement, “People like me can do something to reduce climate risk or risks resulting from climate change.”

In comparison, 17% were undecided about their capacity to do something, while 9% disagreed.

The SWS conducted the survey from December 8 to 11, 2023, through face-to-face interviews with 1,200 adults nationwide. The sampling error margins were ±2.8% for national percentages and ±5.7% for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.

Read more details from the survey here. – Rappler.com

Intense negotiations last December saw countries agree to move away from fossil fuels in COP28‘s UAE Consensus document, aiming to limit the worst impacts of climate change. Now, nations must lay out plans for how they’ll get there.

“We must now turn an unprecedented agreement into unprecedented action and results,” COP28 president Sultan Al Jaber said on Tuesday.

Countries must update their plans to tackle climate change, known as nationally determined contributions or NDCs, said Al Jaber, who also leads the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, at the Paris headquarters of the International Energy Agency.

The landmark 2015 Paris Agreement, which saw countries commit to try to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7F) above preindustrial levels, requires that countries update their NDCs every five years.

Earlier this month, the UAE said they would create a “troika” with Azerbaijan and Brazil, the hosts of the next two UN climate summits, to push countries to set ambitious emissions-cutting goals ahead of the next 2025 deadline.

“Everybody has to have a plan, and that is not where we are today,” said US climate envoy John Kerry at the IEA roundtable event, which brought climate and energy leaders together to discuss actions beyond COP28.

“In the end, there’s no faking it in this next period of time,” Kerry said.

Kerry, who has served as the US climate envoy for three years, announced plans in January to step away from the role some time this spring.

On Tuesday, Kerry said he was not retiring and that he “will stay involved in climate. I will focus on the finance.”

COP29 will take place in Baku in November. – Rappler.com

The manual, an offshoot of a community-based environmental protection program implemented by the Philippine Earth Justice Center (PEJC) and funded by the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI), contains guidelines for the proper implementation and enforcement of local environmental protection laws. 

“This is our thrust in creating climate resilient communities – to make them aware, feed them the right information and then give them access to solutions in protecting the environment,” PEJC Campaigns Director Niña Estenzo told Rappler on Wednesday evening.

Many cities and municipalities of Cebu face environmental problems ranging from mismanagement of communal waste to projects that can potentially harm livelihoods and ecosystems.

The environmentalist said the manual was made for and based on the community-led efforts and experiences of Santa Fe, a 4th class town in the northern part of Cebu, in protecting its natural resources.

Santa Fe Mayor Ithamar Espinosa, in an interview, said that among their obstacles are the attempts of private establishments and entities to build seawalls that threaten the biodiversity of the town’s marine protected areas.

“From our government’s coffers, it is difficult to afford lawyers for litigation of environmental cases,” the mayor said in a speech during the launch.

Espinosa said the manual is a great help to the town’s barangays, and he hopes that it would boost the engagement of residents in the town’s environmental campaigns. 

A collaborative manual

The manual is a product of the collaboration of law student practitioners, cultural anthropologists, and environmental specialists.

Members of the Green Legal Clinic of University of Cebu Law – Office of the Legal Aid provided an informative guide on major environmental laws, divided into three parts:

• Green laws for land and wildlife protection
• Blue laws for coastal and marine life preservation
• Brown laws for pollution control and abatement.

Zyara Dagwayan, a law student practitioner, explained that each category of the laws incorporates a categorized question and answer taken from Supreme Court doctrines which define environmental violations and their legal requisites. 

The manual also adopted a “Seven Step” enforcement guide that makes the process of identifying violations, gathering evidence, and case filing digestible for every sector in the community, especially the marginalized.

Deane Yase, Dagwayan’s colleague, told Rappler that the manual took legal insights from the Philippine Judicial Academy’s (PHILJA) Access to Environmental Justice: A Sourcebook on Environmental Rights and Legal Remedies and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Citizen’s Handbook on Environmental Justice. 

“Our objective was to simplify without compromising substance. This endeavor embodies our vision to truly bring law closer to the people,” Yase said in a speech.

Besides legal knowledge, the manual has a detailed mapping of Santa Fe’s socio-cultural landscape contributed by the Ateneo de Cebu Sacred Heart School, and a coastal resource valuation by the University of San Carlos (USC) Biology and Environmental Science Department.

Activating communities

Since 2010, the PEJC has worked on more than a hundred cases with local communities to defend marine and forest resources in the country. In 2023, the organization worked with officials in Sante Fe to empower residents to protect their environment.

“For the past few months, we have been doing social preparations deep in the villages, making sure that we’ve activated all barangays, given them help desks for the environment so that the community has access to solutions,” Estenzo told Rappler.

The PEJC also connected with youth leaders to hold seminars for the formation of environmental champions, and village chiefs for the placement of signages for “community-protected areas”. 

The PEJC campaigns director said the current environmental situation in the country calls for a declaration of a climate emergency, which multiple groups doubled down on last November during the 10th anniversary of Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan).

Ian Tabañag, a fellow of the Department of Science and Technology and assistant professor at USC Department of Engineering, said during the launch that researchers have found around 800 tons of plastics scattered in Cebu’s mangrove areas.

With this in mind, Estenzo said that communities in Santa Fe must be equipped with the right legal knowhow, including an informed economic valuation of natural resources which, he said, could motivate locals to protect their immediate environment and reduce pollution.

“Now that they’re prepared, all of the community protects the environment. It’s no longer just the enforcement team (but also) civil society organizations, local and international governments, academe, the youth, women, LGBTQIA and even the business sector,” Estenzo added. – Rappler.com