Through this Opinion and its accompanying report (included as an Annex hereto), CIEL seeks to
address two distinct but related matters of relevance to the Commission’s inquiry into the
responsibility of the Carbon Majors, if any, for human rights violations in the Philippines.
First, the accompanying report offers a brief synthesis of knowledge available to major carbon
producers, the early opportunities that knowledge created to reduce or mitigate the climate risks
arising from their products, services, and business operations, and how individual companies and
the Carbon Majors as a group responded to those opportunities. A description of the sources and
limitations of this evidence is set forth in the report at Appendix 1--A Note on Sources.
Second, and relatedly, the present Opinion addresses the significance of those findings to the
question of the responsibility of the Carbon Majors for the violations or threatened violations of
human rights in the Philippines alleged by the Petitioners and extensively documented and
supported in the numerous briefs submitted by amici curiae. As the Petitioners have
emphasized, the exercise of authority requested of the Commission is investigative, rather than
judicial in nature. Accordingly, this Opinion does not venture conclusions regarding the legal
culpability or potential liability of all or any Carbon Majors. At the same time, however, we
recognize that a critical and well-established function of human rights commissions in carrying
out investigations is to seek “accountability through truth and acknowledgement.”1 Such
investigations help meet the State’s responsibility to respect, protect, and promote human rights
in several ways. By exploring the past, an investigation may identify and evaluate patterns of
abuses over time and examine both the cause and consequences of those patterns. In so doing,
the Commission may create an authoritative record that both documents past abuses and
contributes to accountability and justice, while simultaneously informing recommendations for
the future. Identifying those who have caused or contributed violations, where such
identification is possible, is a valuable step in this process.2
An evaluation of the historic aspects of the Carbon Majors’ knowledge and their conduct in light
of that knowledge is particularly important into the present inquiry.
As Documented throughout the Record, the Impacts of Climate Change have Already Resulted
in Significant Human Rights Violations within and beyond the Philippines
As the record before the Commission in the present matter attests, and as the briefs before the
Commission document extensively, the human rights implications of climate change are at once
diverse and profound.3 In the Philippines, and around the world, anthropogenic climate change
is altering hydrological cycles and the spread of disease vectors; increasing the frequency and
1
Steven R. Ratner et al., Accountability for Human Rights Atrocities in International Law: Beyond the Nuremberg
Legacy 259 (3d ed. Oxford Univ. Press, New York 2009).
22
Id. at 259-65 (surveying investigatory commissions and other non-prosecutorial options for accountability with
respect to human rights abuses).
3
See Olivier De Schutter et al., Amicus Curiae Submission by Maastricht Principles Drafting Group at 3-8 (5
December 2016 ) (CIEL notes that Dr. Marcos Orellana, a CIEL Attorney and a member of the Maastricht Drafting
Group, is an amicus on this submission); Amicus Curiae Brief of Client Earth, passim (21 November 2016); Amicus
Curiae Brief of Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (ELAW), at 15-16 (7 November 2016); Amicus Curiae
Brief of Plan B at §§3-5.
2