Memorandum for the Petitioners | 5 The stories of indignity piled upon injustice are, in substantial part, the result of conscious decisions to act and not to act made by the respondent Carbon Majors herein. At some point, people in positions of power effectively decided it would be acceptable to continue producing, marketing, selling, and profiting from coal, oil, and gas that they knew would cause harm to untold millions of people, to the present, and to generations to come. They made investment decisions over and over again in defiance of science, of the law, and of conscience. We have heard the human cost of those decisions, and it will only get much worse. r r Time and time again, Filipinos have proven that, in the face of catastrophe, they are galvanized into action. But until when are Filipinos going to be content to adapt and continue to bear the costs of climate change? This conundrum will surely haunt us until we put a halt to this, raise the alarm , and stand together against the major culprits of this devastating situation we were forced to accept as part of our “new normal.” This National Inquiry heard stories of hope and heroism from a group of proactive Filipinos from Barangay Banaba, San Mateo, Rizal who, having survived strong typhoons and floods since the 1990s, established their own non-profit organization, Buklod Tao. 16 They are implementing projects to reduce the risks from disasters in their neighboring communities in Rizal: creating task forces to conduct rescues after major floods and supporting affected communities as they rebuild. Even the founders of Buklod Tao , however, know that small efforts, while invaluable to vulnerable communities, cannot prevent the future impacts of climate change. With numerous tragic stories we heard during the course of the National Inquiry, more Filipinos are beginning to understand the fundamental injustice in having to bear the worst impacts of climate change while those who contribute most to it continue to enrich themselves. In the past, the global magnitude of climate change and the multitude of factors that cause it presented a challenge in allocating responsibility. This allowed the major contributors, such as the fossil fuel industry, to shift blame on others. But times have changed. A study by Mr. Richard Heede of the Climate Accountability Institute showed that 90 Carbon Major entities, including the 5017 investor-owned Carbon Major companies contributed an See Exhibit “ZZZ” to “ZZZ-2,” Mga Salaysay nina Gg. Manuel A. Abinales, Gg. Pablo Taon III, at Gng. Francia M. Enemas. 17 Since the first publication of the Carbon Majors research in 2013, a number of the 50 investor-owned carbon producers have changed and will likely continue to change due to mergers, acquisitions, cessation of operations, or becoming part of state-owned companies. Currently, it appears that there are 42 active investor-owned respondent Carbon Majors. The petitioners have noted these changes in previous submissions to the Honorable Commission and in Annexes “D” (Corporate Statements on Climate Change and Human Rights) and “E” ( Respondent Carbon Majors’ Commitments, Scores, and Grades) of this memorandum. To avoid confusion, the 47 Carbon Major entities that were notified in the 16