102
Michael Addo, a member of the United Nations Working Group on Business and
Human Rights, explains that:
it is through human rights due diligence that any enterprise can
understand the exact nature of the harm and its contribution to
harm. In this case, its contribution to climate change, and so define
exactly how each enterprise can prevent, mitigate or remedy any
harms. Not knowing your role, contribution, of course, means you
are unable to address the harm. Due diligence, therefore, is the key
to corporate respect for human rights.477
Furthermore, if through the due diligence process or other means, it is found that
a business enterprise has caused or contributed to adverse human rights impacts, it
would be incumbent upon such business enterprise to provide for or cooperate in
the remediation of the adverse human rights impacts as mandated by Principle 22
of the UNGP-BHR:
Remediation and remedy refer to both the processes of providing
remedy for an adverse human rights impact and the substantive
outcomes that can counteract, or make good, the adverse impact.
These outcomes may take a range of forms, such as apologies,
restitution, rehabilitation, financial or non-financial compensation,
and punitive sanctions (whether criminal or administrative, such
as fines), as well as the prevention of harm through, for example,
injunctions or guarantees of non-repetition.478
Business enterprises, including their value chains, doing business in, or by some
other reason within the jurisdiction of, the Philippines, may be compelled to
undertake human rights due diligence and held accountable for failure to remediate
human rights abuses arising from their business operations.
E. Global Dependence on Fossil Fuels
Latest data479 show that fossil fuels hold the largest share in the global energy mix at 83.13
percent of total. Oil, coal, and natural gas amount to 31.21 percent, 27.20 percent, and
477
T.S.N. of the Second Inquiry Hearing dated 23-24 May 2018, at 157.
478
United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, The Corporate Responsibility to
Respect Human Rights: An Interpretative Guide, HR/PUB/12/02 (2012) at 8.
479
Hannah
Ritchie,
Max
Roser
&
Pablo
Rosado,
Energy
(2020),
available
at
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