The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has urged the government to adopt and enforce “bold and meaningful actions” to address climate change that has been exacerbated by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
CHR’s plea was aired as it joined the observance today, Aug. 19, of the “World Humanitarian Day 2021” with its theme “#TheHumanRace.”
It said that climate change has sadly affected the world's most vulnerable people who contributed the least to the climate crisis the world is facing now.
In the Global Climate Risk Index 2021, the CHR said the Philippines ranked fourth in the top 10 countries most affected by climate change from 2000 to 2019 with Puerto Rico, Myanmar, and Haiti coming before it.
The CHR attributed the country's high ranking to "the dire consequences of annual gross domestic product (GDP) losses, changes in rainfall patterns and distribution, droughts, threats to biodiversity and food security, sea-level rise, public health risks, and endangerment of vulnerable groups, such as women and indigenous peoples."
It said that addressing the climate emergency cannot be stressed enough especially since climate disasters have been destroying impoverished sectors and communities on a yearly basis.
"A collective and proactive framework approach from concerned agencies is needed to ensure that vulnerable sectors will be supported in mitigating the impacts of climate change. We cannot leave anyone behind," the CHR said.
There is a need to help allevite the plights faced by "climate-vulnerable groups as their well-being, dignity, and long-term condition must be upheld in all actions and decisions addressing climate change," it said.
Citing the World Health Organization (WHO), the CHR said that climate change may indirectly affect the COVID-19 response because "it undermines environmental determinants of health, and places additional stress on health systems."
It pointed out that the WHO even warned that increasing human pressure on the environment might drive disease emergence in the future.
To reduce the risk of future outbreaks, the WHO suggested "strengthening health systems, improved surveillance of infectious disease in wildlife, livestock and humans, and greater protection of biodiversity and the natural environment,” it said.