78% of all the people who died due to disasters in the Philippines.3 The World Bank also stated that annually the country has to spend 0.5% of its GDP on natural disasters.4 Between 1998 and 2009, the country had to deal with costs of up to US$24.3 billion (23.9% of GDP) due to storms, exposing 12.1 million people.5 The various possible factors contributing to the occurrence of super-typhoons like Yolanda and other extreme weather events now include human-induced climate change. Natural variability is now occurring on top of, and interacting with, background conditions that have already been altered by long-term climate change. According to scientific experts, “[w]hile natural variability continues to play a key role, climate change has shifted the odds and changed the natural limits, making certain types of extreme weather more frequent and more intense.”6 In the era of climate change, the Petitioners feel that the real value of the statistics and reports of disaster-related casualties has not been given adequate expression. The real life pain and agony of losing loved ones, homes, farms—almost everything—during strong typhoons, droughts, and other weather extremes, as well as the everyday struggle to live, to be safe, and to be able to cope with the adverse, slow onset impacts of climate change, are beyond numbers and words. Climate change interferes with the enjoyment of the Filipinos’ fundamental rights. Hence, the Petitioners demand accountability of those contributing to climate change. A recent research endeavour, undertaken by Mr. Richard Heede of the Climate Accountability Institute, quantified and traced “for the first time the lion’s share of cumulative global CO2 and methane emissions since the industrial revolution began to the largest multinational and state-owned producers of crude oil, natural gas, coal and cement.”7 These !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 3 C. Ancheta, J. Bojo, V. Dato, J. Heister, M. Kariuki; J. Morton, Z. Trohanis, J. Tuyor, M. Villaluz, F. Virtucio,, S. Wedderburn, Y. Zhang, Yabei. A strategic approach to climate change in the Philippines. World Bank, 6, http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2010/04/15198885/strategic-approach-climate-change-philippines (last accessed on Apr. 20, 2016). 4 Id. 5 IPCC, 2014: Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part B: Regional Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Small Islands [Barros, V.R., C.B. Field, D.J. Dokken, M.D. Mastrandrea, K.J. Mach, T.E. Bilir, M. Chatterjee, K.L. Ebi, Y.O. Estrada, R.C. Genova, B. Girma, E.S. Kissel, A.N. Levy, S. MacCracken, P.R. Mastrandrea, and L.L.White (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, pp. 688, at 1638. 6 Climate Communications, Overview: Current Extreme Weather & Climate Change, https://www.climatecommunication.org/new/features/extreme-weather/overview/ (last accessed Sept. 15, 2015). 7 R. Heede, Carbon Majors: Accounting for Carbon and Methane Emissions 1854-2010, Methods and Results Report (Apr. 7, 2014), http://climateaccountability.org/pdf/MRR%209.1%20Apr14R.pdf, at 5 (last accessed June 15, 2015) at 5 [hereinafter Methods and Results Report]. Note that there are other reports concerning corporate GHG emissions. See J. Moorhead & T. Nixon, Global 500 Greenhouse Gases Performance 2010-2013: 2014 Report on Trends (Dec. 2014), http://www.bsdconsulting.com/bsd-files/news-downloadable-pdfs/global-500-greenhousegases-performance-trends-2010-2013.pdf (last accessed June 15, 2015). ! 3! ! ! ! ! !