20 As I delivered my intervention about the threat of climate change to communities, I tried to keep my tears at bay, but my emotion got the better of me. Typhoon Haiyan was ripping through the Philippines, tearing through communities and cities, killing at least 10,000 people, displacing millions, and leaving the country in an emotional black hole. Images of dead bodies were seared in my mind, and it was all too personal. I had feared that my brother was among the fallen. Thankfully, he survived, and during the People’s Pilgrimage in 2015, he walked with me - a reminder of how easily I could have lost him to an extreme weather event. Every step we took was a prayer for the friends and loved ones we had lost. We are already experiencing climate change impacts, including sea-level rise, hotter temperatures, extreme weather events and changes in precipitation. These in turn, result in human rights impacts, such as loss of homes and livelihoods, water contamination, food scarcity, displacement of whole communities, disease outbreaks, and even the loss of life. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, “there is now an overwhelming scientific consensus that global warming is indeed happening and humans are contributing to it.” The dire threats posed to the Philippines are well documented. Experts have also demonstrated the central role that fossil fuel companies have played in locking society into the use of fossil fuels and undermining climate action. It is shocking to think that, as far back as 40 years ago, ExxonMobil already knew from research done by their own scientists, that burning fossil fuels could worsen climate change. Their reaction? Some oil companies ran an expensive disinformation campaign, mimicking the playbook employed by the tobacco industry to confuse the public over harm from smoking. Now, they are under investigation by at least two US attorneys general for this massive climate denial campaign. But there is light at the end of the dark tunnel. People cannot and will not accept these threats and are now taking action to protect themselves and their families, communities, and future. In the Philippines, I joined disaster survivors, community groups and Greenpeace Philippines to successfully petition the Human Rights Commission to launch an investigation into the responsibility of fossil fuel companies for human rights impacts of climate change. Despite the growing number of human rights issues that continue to plague the Philippines´, the Commission nevertheless sees the utmost urgency and have announced that it will move forward with this first-ever national inquiry. Our efforts in the Philippines are part of a global chorus of climate-related legal efforts. Swiss grannies, youth groups in the US and Norway, Indigenous Peoples in Canada, Dutch citizens, allied organisations and Greenpeace supporters these are just some of the courageous people taking action to defend human rights in this era of climate crisis. These actions give us hope that humanity will be able to live up to the commitments made in the Paris Agreement by limiting temperature rise to 1.5°C and keeping fossil fuels in the ground.