We need to collaborate with every nation and country in the world if we want to be successful in combatting the current Climate Crisis. In this regard, on behalf of GPP Kalikasan Muna (Green Party of the Philippines), we are endorsing and supporting the Declaration of MOCK Conference of the Parties 26 (MOCK COP26).
David D’Angelo, National President GPP Kalikasan Muna (Green Party of the Philippines)
We echo the concern and statement of the youth representative from the Philippines to with:
“We demand genuine, urgent climate action from our leaders. We call for a green leadership that does not antagonize scientists and activists. Beyond sloganeering, the Philippine government must prove its commitment to climate action with a scientific, comprehensive, and people-first NDC that works with civil society toward meeting its environmental and emissions targets. We demand quality and accessible climate education programs that integrate modern science with community and Indigenous knowledge. We demand the protection of environmental and climate protectors against corporate and state aggression; and continue to seek justice for the hundreds killed for asserting human and environmental rights.“
“World leaders should also be held accountable. We urge you to listen to the science and heed the calls of climate activists, especially those from the Global South. Those countries contributing most to the climate crisis must achieve even more ambitious NDCs, divest from destructive industries, and assist in the technical capacity-building and climate-resilient community development initiatives of the Global South.“
“We must address the climate crisis with the same urgency as the COVID-19 pandemic; we strongly urge our government and global leaders to reaffirm their commitment to address the climate crisis and take bold climate action immediately. Youth involvement and participation in decision-making is a must. We refuse to inherit a dead planet — our right to a green, just, and equitable future is nonnegotiable.“
We, therefore, support the following (The full MOCK COP26 Treat can be DOWNLOADED HERE):
Climate Education
1.1 Each country shall ensure that all school-age children, regardless of how they are schooled, are provided with comprehensive and up-to-date teaching regarding the climate emergency and ecological crisis. Such teaching shall be adapted to be age and region-specific and to give all young people the information they need to enable them to understand the extent, nature, and structural causes of the crisis, the measures which need to be taken to substantially address and reduce the crisis and mitigate and adapt to its consequences. Each country shall implement national laws to ensure free access to impartial climate science and data, and provide legal redress against those making false claims relating to the climate emergency and ecological crisis.
Climate Justice
1.2 Each country shall ensure that all school-age children, regardless of how they are schooled, are given the opportunity to learn about their connection with nature, including (but not limited to) drawing upon the knowledge and practices of Indigenous peoples.
2.1 Each country shall extend legal protection to the rights of Indigenous peoples, including their land, way of life and livelihoods, supporting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples . Each country shall also implement appropriate and reasonable mechanisms for Indigenous peoples to be recognised as rights holders, such as identity certificates.
2.2 The UN should formally recognise the human right to a healthy environment, including the right to a safe climate. A UN Universal Declaration on the Rights of Nature45 should also be implemented.
2.3 Each country shall make industrial agriculture, mining and extractive and other polluting industries responsible in law for upholding sustainable practices and complying with regulations regarding full and swift restoration and clean-up, and the rights of their workers and neighbouring communities. Each country shall ensure that new projects are not undertaken that involve clearing residents off their land without informed consent and/or destroying previously protected ecosystems or sensitive zones. To prevent national governments unduly redefining any protected areas, any changes should be overseen by a national scientific advisory board, whose findings should be made transparent to the public.
2.4 Each country shall introduce a law making the wholesale and deliberate destruction of environments upon which humanity depends a criminal offence of ecocide with penalties appropriate to its severity and consequences for humanity, and in addition, shall support the introduction of a new international crime of ecocide6 capable of prosecution as a crime in the International Criminal Court.
2.5 Each country shall facilitate meaningful and inclusive youth participation in decision-making in all matters relating to the climate emergency and ecological crisis at all levels, including (but not limited to) the setting of NDCs. Methods could include, for example, making information related to current decision-making available via media frequented by young people, youth citizen assemblies, facilitating consultations with youth, giving youth a seat at the table to vote on proposed legislation, creating more job and internship opportunities for youth, and sending a minimum number or percentage of youth delegates to climate conferences such as COP26. For the purposes of this policy we define youth as people aged 11-29 inclusive.
2.6 Each country shall implement and enforce laws to protect or, if there is existing provision, enhance, the active participation in decision-making of those in society who advocate addressing environmental issues, social injustice and corruption and to protect their safety and their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
Climate Resilient Livelihoods
3.1. Each country shall develop and implement a National Adaptation Plan and provide the funding, training and resources necessary to enable people and communities to adapt and mitigate as necessary to protect their livelihoods from the consequences of the climate emergency and ecological crisis, including the transition needed to mitigate the crisis. This is not limited to but shall include the provision of re-skilling and entrepreneurship skills programmes in renewables and ecological approaches.8
3.2 The policies and practices of each country and international agencies shall support sustainable agriculture and regeneration of soils and forests. These shall include measures to assist farmers to move away from agricultural practices which are driving deforestation and are harmful to soil health, food security, water quality, water availability and biodiversity, and to substantially reduce chemical use, greenhouse gas emissions and pollution from agriculture. Furthermore, policies shall support investing in plant-based food alternatives and technological innovations such as cellular agriculture, and implementing policies to combat global food waste.
3.3 Each country shall commit to a Green Recovery: plans for recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic shall not entrench and subsidise fossil fuel use but shall commit the country to a just and equitable transition to sustainability and the development of low carbon jobs and opportunities.
Physical and Mental Health
4.1 Each country shall ensure a child’s right to play, learn, and engage with the natural world by enacting policies to protect and restore biodiversity, such as establishing protected nature reserves, investing in reforestation, and banning mining, logging, and fossil fuel drilling in those protected areas.
4.2 Each country shall ensure safe, breathable air quality by adopting strong regulations on air pollutants that require industry and commerce to significantly reduce emissions and pollution. In addition, they shall implement additional social measures to ensure clean, quality air, including the promotion of pedestrian green zones, affordable and sustainable public transport, and phasing out of internal combustion engines.
4.3 Each country shall provide the necessary funding for child-friendly mental health services, including (but not limited to) the prevention and treatment of eco-anxiety, and the provision of care that directly addresses climate emergency-related stressors. They shall also recognise the particular vulnerability of children to the impacts of the climate crisis in terms of its impact on their health and well-being, and proactively address those impacts, including undernutrition, unsafe housing, and the increased risk of physical and mental ill-health.
Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)
5.1 Each country’s plans, programmes and laws shall be fully aligned with the IPCC’s call to limit global warming to below 1.5°C. The plans need to take all known greenhouse gas emissions into account including land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF), shipping and heavy industry / international flight. Commitments shall genuinely prioritise the radical reduction in Greenhouse Gas (“GHG”) emissions first and not involve offshoring. Any offsetting shall only be done as a last resort and be carried out through schemes that respect the principles of social justice, ownership and fair trade, and countries shall be transparent about their offshore emissions, and clearly state the impacts of their environmental policy on developing country Parties (and in particular on the least developed countries and small island developing States).9
5.2 Each country’s NDCs shall spell out detailed plans and timetables for a whole-of-society energy transition away from coal, oil, gas and other fossil fuels, which includes a ban on future developments of fossil fuel reserves, and a detailed action plan on the sound management of the life-cycle of renewable energy equipment.
Protecting biodiversity
6.1 Each country shall commit to ambitious targets, and the funding and actions to deliver them, for the protection and restoration of at least 30% of land and marine ecosystems by 2030 These must benefit biodiversity, sequester carbon, and ensure the integrity of Indigenous peoples and local communities’ rights.10
6.2 Each country, at a national and international level, shall phase out all non-essential single-use plastics, taking into account the needs of people with disabilities, and introduce a circular system for all materials which promotes reuse and repair instead of single use and continually uses existing ‘waste’ streams to make ‘new’ products, instead of continuing to rely on oil-based or bio-based virgin materials.
