Plan B: Recommendations Since the Honourable Commission commenced its investigation, there have been some significant developments relating to the legal responsibility of the Carbon Majors for the impacts of climate change. Most recently the Mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, announced the City’s intention to sue 5 of the companies - BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, and Royal Dutch Shell, stating: They are some of the very biggest companies in the fossil fuel industry. That industry knowingly exacerbated climate change. They had all the evidence in the world of the damage that their products were causing, and they continued nonetheless to poison the Earth … We’re saying simply that this city — which suffered so deeply after Hurricane Sandy — has literally experienced billions and billions of dollars of damage as a result of climate change that these specific companies aided and abetted, and they should pay damages for that, very much the same way that tobacco companies were forced to pay damages for the horrible impact that they had knowingly on public health for so many years. 356 It is one thing, however, for New York City to commence proceedings against some of the best resourced companies on the planet, another for a citizen of the Republic of the Philippines to do so. It is respectfully submitted that the Honourable Commission might provide for the citizens of the Philippines to have access to justice and appropriate compensation by recommending the implementation of a Climate Change Liability Act. Such an Act could make it practical and affordable for citizens of the Philippines to sue the companies for loss and damage they have suffered as a result of anthropogenic climate change. It might for example: 1. Provide costs protection for claimants in appropriate cases 2. Provide for class actions 3. Stipulate that a Court may take into account the findings of the Honourable Commission in determining claims under the Act 4. Stipulate that where any company can be shown to have acted dishonestly it may be held to be jointly and severally liable for all loss and damage arising. In considering this Recommendation the Honourable Commission may have regard to the Model Law as set out in the paper: Taking Climate Justice Into Our Own Hands: A Model Climate Compensation Act.357 356 WUNC, Mayor Bill De Blasio ON Why New York City is Suing 5 Major Oil Companies (Jan. 11, 2018), http://wunc.org/post/mayor-bill-de-blasio-why-new-york-city-suing-5-major-oil-companies#stream/0. 357 ANDREW GAGE & MARGARETHA WEWERINKE, TAKING CLIMATE JUSTICE INTO OUR OWN HANDS: A MODEL CLIMATE COMPENSATION ACT (Dec. 2015), https://www.wcel.org/sites/default/files/publications/2015_takingclimatejusticeintoourhands_web.pdf. 79