On November 8th 2013 the Philippines was hit by what is considered to be the most powerful tropical cyclone to ever make landfall. The effect of typhoon Haiyan, just days before the UN climate negotiations commenced in Warsaw, was a poignant reminder to the UN delegates, and the rest of the world, of the human devastation that can be wrought by climate change. Some of the worst-affected were the 4.5 million people who were forcibly displaced from their homes.
Philippines climate negotiator Yeb Sano gave an emotional speech at the climate talks: "My country is being pestered by this hell-storm called super storm Haiyan … and the devastation is staggering. I struggle to find words even for the images we see." A message presented the Action4Climate documentary Global Warning by Dobrin Kashavelov. In the film the mayor of the city of Tacloban emphasises: "What hit us was beyond our imagination."
Fast forward eight months and the latest report from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) shows that the devastation in the Philippines has had long lasting implications, not least for the more than two million people who are still without access to adequate housing and the many thousands of people who have yet to return. In the absence of targeted assistance these people remain unable to repair their damaged homes or find alternatives. As the new cyclone season approaches, heralded by this week's Typhoon Rammasun, thousands are at risk and exposed to further misery.
Kashavelov's film reveals the traumatic stories of the survivors. "For three days we were like in a prison in our own home. We were so afraid for our lives. The bodies were just everywhere," says Henry Wechee. In the aftermath of the disaster, displaced people like Lucila quickly voiced their fears over an uncertain future: "We don't know where we will live. We don't know where we'll get food. We don't know for how long we'll get relief."
Now, according to the IDMC, some of the most vulnerable people are invisible and excluded from access to durable solutions. Protracted displacement in the wake of typhoon Haiyan is a reminder that there are severe limits to current adaptation measures. It highlights that, without significant progress towards a strong mechanism for loss and damage, we are not able to protect the many vulnerable communities that will be forcibly displaced by increasingly extreme weather events. It is a gap in international law and policy that, in the aftermath of typhoon Haiyan, has failed to effectively safeguard the rights of those who were forcibly displaced, leaving them without sustained assistance, protection and access to durable solutions.
This gap not only fails those displaced internally and by extreme events. The gap through which those in the Philippines have fallen is indicative of a wider protection gap that fails to guarantee adequate assistance and protection to climate refugees. Existing international law and policy also fails those displaced by gradual changes to the environment such as sea level rise and rainfall variability, those who are forced across national borders, and those who are at risk of becoming stateless.
The two million people affected in the Philippines are also a tragic reminder of the unresolved and under-examined protection gaps that fail to provide redress for the inevitable human impacts of climate change. The Environmental Justice Foundation considers Haiyan one of many stark warnings and argues that in addition to climate change adaptation and mitigation the international community urgently needs to recognise the rights of climate refugees and develop a new international framework to respond to their needs.
"This is something we will have to get used to. It is a wake-up call to all nations," says the mayor of Tacloban in the Action4Climate documentary. Global Warning emphasises that action on climate change is urgent, both to tackle the root causes of climate change but also to learn to adapt and build resilience to future impacts. Oscar Orbos, the governor of Pangasinan, concludes in the film: "The whole world is one. We brought this climate change to us, all of us. There will be more typhoons of this magnitude. The only solution is for all of us again, to help us help ourselves."
The situation in the Philippines is just one of the many examples demonstrating how climate change is driving people from their homes, and an indication of the scale of the human devastation we can expect as global temperatures continue to rise. The global community needs to overcome the political stalemate enveloping international climate negotiations and work towards developing a new framework that guarantees protection and assistance to the world's growing number of climate refugees. Without it we will witness a growing number of similar situations of protracted displacement, situations through which we are compromising the human rights of vulnerable people not only in the Philippines, but around the world.
Steve Trent works for the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF).
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