The world is burning. We must fight back - together

Global North politicians continue to ignore their responsibility

Bangladesh Floods (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

In the past month, we’ve seen a lot of climate disasters. Part of the Alps has crumbled, Bangladesh has faced the “worst floods in memory,” and record-breaking heatwaves with temperatures climbing over 40 degrees Celsius in North Africa, Southwest Asia (or the Middle East), East Asia and Europe. In July, UK temperatures topped 40C for the first time ever. In the US, President Joe Biden is considering declaring a national climate emergency.

Multiple studies have come out proving that these extreme weather events were exacerbated by the climate crisis. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports have explained time and time again how the climate crisis is already here and we’re on track for much worse if we don’t act now.

Global North multinational companies and fossil fuel industries are historically and currently the main drivers of the greenhouse gas emissions that have caused the climate crisis. Yet, Global North politicians continue to ignore their responsibility.

The G7 summit is an annual meeting of the world’s largest economies where they talk about urgent issues across the world. This year’s G7 summit, however, that happened at the end of June, fell flat, once again. They were meant to talk about solutions to the Russia-Ukraine war, food insecurity, and the climate crisis.  Yet they are now committing more to gas – the different short-term and long-term solutions they proposed are not enough for any of the different crises. This was echoed again when the European Parliament backed labelling gas investments as green. Seven years ago, the G7 summit promised to end government subsidies for fossil fuels in 2025, yet subsidies have still not decreased globally. Biden even went as far as to say fossil fuel subsidies probably will increase in 2022.

On the other hand, you have people’s movements and even leaders from the most vulnerable countries, coming together to call for debt relief. With the V20 (Vulnerable 20) of the Climate Vulnerable Forum calling for an unconditional cancellation of public external debt payments by all lenders. The Debt for Climate campaign is growing more and more support. As the world’s debt crisis grows, debt relief and debt cancellation is an important form of climate reparations.

Injustice and inequity continues to grow. We must recognise how they all exacerbate one another and are caused by the profit-oriented system that we live in. We must fight back – together.

Dispatches from The Philippines

Last June 30, Marcos Jr., the son of the Philippines’ former dictator, was inaugurated as the Philippines president and alongside him as vice president, Sara Duterte, the daughter of the ruthless president we’ve had for the past six years. I believe these two have cheated their way into power. If you have read the past few months of the newsletter, then you will know the repercussions of these two in power. From one fascist government to another – there are darker times ahead of us, but there is also hope and light found in our community. All over the world, darkness seems to engulf us but we will not let this happen. Things will get better because we will continue to fight. Things will get better as long as we continue to fight. We have a better world to win and we must build this together.

In the days before the inauguration we saw activists, environmental organisations, and media networks being silenced and censored.

In his speech on the day of the inauguration, Marcos said "we will look to our partners and friends to help the Philippines who, despite having a very small carbon footprint, is at the highest risk. First spare victims, then help them recover, and move on to lessen the harmful impact of climate change." BLAH BLAH BLAH! All that comes out of Marcos’ mouth are lies. With him as president, lives are at risk, especially those already most impacted by the climate crisis.

He also, once again, took credit for the Ilocos windmills that has been proven false repeatedly. As this dictator blatantly lies to the people, we cannot expect any shape or form of genuine climate action and climate justice.

The Philippines, already having a record of being such a dangerous country for environment defenders, is put at a higher risk with Marcos in power. We need a leader who demands climate justice and calls out climate imperialism. We need a leader who will prioritise people’s welfare and rights over personal gain and greed. Marcos will never be able to do this.

We’re asking the world to watch what’s happening. Join us in our dissent against this dictatorship.

This article was originally published in The Independent’s Climate Warrior newsletter. To sign up to the free weekly newsletter, written every Wednesday in turn by Lizzie Carr MBE, Dale Vince, Mitzi Jonelle and Mikaela Loach, visit our newsletters page or add your email to the box at the top of this article.