50 should look to the UN Guiding Principles on Human Rights, which “call for the application of a test of contributory causation, balanced by a standard of reasonableness.”203 The Interpretive Guide to the Guiding Principles provide further support, noting that a corporation may contribute to human rights impacts through its own activities— either directly or through some outside entity.204 2.128. In assessing the contribution of the respondents to human rights harms resulting from climate change, as discussed above, the Honorable Commission should reject a formalistic view of corporate personhood, as presented by some respondents,205 and instead take a practical and pragmatic approach of looking at corporate groups, e.g. parent entity or entities and subsidiaries, based on the enterprise theory. This approach will afford the Commission the opportunity to assess the overall contribution of the respondent Carbon Majors to the global problem that is having severe impacts on individuals in the Philippines.206 2.129. With this, the Honorable Commission has sufficient evidence of factual causation to issue a finding that the Carbon Majors impleaded in the Petition are responsible for their share of the climate change impacts and that they must take action to prevent further harm. The petitioners welcome the opportunity to engage in a more robust debate on legal grounds of this investigation, hoping that the respondents will engage meaningfully and address substantive matters during the public hearings. F. The issue and remedies prayed for in the Petition are well within the Honorable Commission’s investigative function; facts and developments in climate science, law, and policy can be taken notice of by the Honorable Commission for practical reasons. 2.130. Respondent ExxonMobil contends that the reliefs prayed for by the petitioners go beyond the “limited authority” of the Honorable Commission to investigate or make findings of fact. Further, respondent ExxonMobil argues against the Honorable Commission’s potential adjudication of the parties’ legal rights and the act of taking official or 203 ClientEarth’s amicus submission, pp. 44. Office of the United National High Commissioner on Human Rights (2012), The Corporate Responsibility to Respect Human Rights: An Interpretive Guide, pp. 46-49, available at http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/HR.PUB.12.2_En.pdf, last accessed on 06 February 2017. 205 Respondent ExxonMobil’s response, op cit., pp. 7-14. 206 ClientEarth’s amicus submission, pp. 47-48. 204

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