Philippines Wants to Sue the World For Typhoon Damage

In one of the most ridiculous political maneuvers ever made the Philippines Ambassador to the United Nations demanded the world pay reparations to the Philippines for all the damage caused by recent typhoons. Why? Climate change. 

https://www.philstar.com/headlines/climate-and-environment/2024/12/04/2404974/internationally-wrongful-act-govt-demands-legal-remedy-climate-change-damages-top-un-court

The Philippine government asserted before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Tuesday, December 3, that countries most responsible for driving climate change are committing an "internationally wrongful act."

It called on these nations to provide reparations, marking one of the Marcos Jr. administration’s boldest statements on climate justice.

At the landmark climate change hearings in The Hague, Netherlands, Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra emphasized that the Philippines' position is to hold nations accountable for the largest contributions to greenhouse gas emissions.

“The Philippines submits that any act or omission attributable to a state which results or has resulted in anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions over time, thereby causing climate change, is a breach of a state's obligation under international law,” he said. 

Guevarra presented the escalating climate challenges faced by the Philippines, including record-breaking heat and increasingly severe storms.

He referred to the recent train of cyclones, many of which were super typhoons, which battered regions with no memory of strong storms. Guevarra also mentioned how the country reached 55°Celsius in May this year. Both have caused several class suspensions.    

For 16 consecutive years, the Philippines has been ranked the most disaster-prone country on the World Risk Index, with its score worsening slightly in 2024.

Guevarra also said that nations failing to “faithfully conform to their international obligations” under existing laws, conventions and treaties established with the United Nations are committing an “internationally wrongful act.”

“The commission of such internationally wrongful act triggers state responsibility with its necessary consequences, and carries with it the obligation of the responsible state to cease the wrongful conduct and make full reparation therefore,” he said. 

Examples of legally binding international agreements include the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), adopted by nearly 200 nations. 

The Paris Agreement, ratified in 2015, compels countries to cooperate in limiting the rise in global average temperatures to no more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. 

Meanwhile, the UNFCCC places the burden of responsibility on developed, heavily industrialized countries, as they are the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions inducing global warming.

As developing countries like the Philippines are disproportionately affected by climate change, Guevarra argued that countries should have the right to “demand the enforcement of remedial actions.” 

This could include ceasing the “internationally wrongful act” and obtaining reparations for the damages caused, he added.

An international legal remedy. Drawing on the Philippine legal concept of the Writ of Kalikasan, which safeguards environmental rights, Guevarra suggested that the ICJ consider a similar international remedy.

He said that the Philippines “has no inch of doubt” that international law imposes a broader responsibility on countries contributing to climate change, stressing that these nations can do more to reduce their emissions.

Acknowledging that climate change is also caused by goals of economic development, Guevarra said that a country “must operate within a paradigm of non-compromise.”

Meanwhile, Philippine Representative to the UN Carlos Sorreta said that climate change does not only affect the environment but it is also a “serious threat to [the] maintenance of peace and security.”  

“Rising sea levels, extreme weather events, and resource scarcity fueled by the climate crisis destabilize regions, exacerbate conflicts, displace peoples, and imperil sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Sorreta added. 

Amid threats to its territorial waters, including the West Philippine Sea, Sorreta also said the fundamental role of the 2016 South China Sea Arbitration ruling also mandates protection from “future damage and preservation.”

“States are bound to address the climate crisis within a legal framework that maintains peace and security, respects sovereignty, and upholds human rights,” he said. 

The ICJ, in the biggest case on climate change to date, began hearing arguments from 98 countries and 12 international organizations on Monday, December 2.

This is totally ridiculous. The world's top biggest polluters are China, the USA, and India. Does the Philippines really expect to receive reparations from China and India? The USA already gives the Philippines billions each year and always renders aid after typhoons. 

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1238119

The United States (US) has pledged USD1 million in humanitarian funding to the Philippines after a series of typhoons battered parts of the archipelago.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd James Austin III made the announcement Monday in a courtesy call to President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. in Malacañang.

Austin offered the US’ condolences to the victims of the six typhoons in the Philippines, which all hit the country within weeks.

He assured that the US, as the Philippines’ longstanding ally, is ready to assist Filipinos.

“I have authorized US troops and all the Philippine forces to provide life-saving aid to the Filipino people. The US have also secured another million dollar in urgent humanitarian aid and that will enhance the work of the USAID (United States Agency for International Development) and the World Food Programme,” he said.

The real issue is the Philippines is so backwards, corrupt, and broken that the government cannot build proper infrastructure to prevent massive flooding and landslides. They also cannot provide housing to house people in safe areas. It's not climate change that is causing the damage to the Philippines. It's an inept government that is the problem. 

Typhoon Confusion

Is PAGASA, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, or the Philippine media to blame for the confusion about typhoons? 

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1030615/ph-readies-for-ompong-as-typhoon-nears

International weather observers expect Mangkhut to reach a super typhoon category, while the local weather bureau says it won’t but said it would be a strong typhoon.

Not only does PAGASA reject the international name of all typhoons thus causing more than a little confusion with news reports but they also rejected the consensus of the international community that Ompong will become a super typhoon. A little later PAGASA revised their statement from "won't" to "low chance" of becoming a super typhoon.

Even much later the media and weather bureaus reported that Ompong reached super typhoon status.

Super Typhoon Mangkhut slammed into the Philippines in the early hours of Saturday, bringing ferocious gale-force winds and pounding rains, as aid agencies warned millions are at risk from rising flood waters and landslides.

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/09/14/asia/super-typhoon-mangkhut-ompong-wxc-intl/index.html

Rappler reported just the opposite.

Though not considered a super typhoon, Typhoon Ompong (Mangkhut) claimed dozens of lives and left much damage in the northern part of the country.

https://www.rappler.com/nation/212089-in-photos-the-wrath-of-typhoon-ompong

So which is it? Was Ompong a super typhoon or just a regular typhoon? The confusion lies in the fact that the Philippines uses a different measuring system than the US based JTWC and that the media reports both the statements of PAGASA and the JTWC.

Ompong was earlier classified as a supertyphoon by the US Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC).  

The JTWC classification is based on 1-minute instrumental readings. PAGASA has lower figures because it uses 10-minute readings similar to the standard used by the Japan Meteorological Agency. 

https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/09/13/18/ompong-may-become-supertyphoon-before-smashing-cagayan-pagasa

If PAGASA is using a standard smilier to the Japan Meteorological Agency then would that not be considered an international standard? Why is only the US based JTWC considered as having an international standard or being an international observer?

Now a new typhoon is barreling towards the Philippines and it's classification is also in dispute.

 https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1035833/paeng-now-a-super-typhoon-jtwc

Typhoon “Paeng” (International name “Trami”) has intensified into a super typhoon, the US-based Joint Typhoon Warning Center said Tuesday. 

It is packing 259 kilometers per hour maximum sustained winds and gusts of up to 314 kph. 

But the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration continued to categorize Paeng as a typhoon. JTWC measures the average wind strength per 1 minute, while Pagasa measures average winds every 10 minutes. 

The typhoon is not expected to make landfall in the Philippines. 

Thankfully this typhoon will not be making landfall in the Philippines which makes its category irrelevant. Actually typhoon categorisation is irrelevant to the Philippines because each typhoon inevitably causes much damage, destructive flooding, and many deaths because the Philippines is, for some odd reason, not typhoon ready.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/11/11/why-the-philippines-wasnt-ready-for-typhoon-haiyan

Contrast the Philippines' experience with typhoons to Japan's, with earthquakes. For centuries, the country was nearly helpless against its regular quakes; more than 140,000 people were killed when one hit outside Tokyo in 1923. Today, the country is engineered practically from the ground up to withstand them. Large buildings are fortified with elaborate hydraulic systems; many homes are networked with alarms that sound in case of an offshore quake that could bring a tsunami. Civilians drill since early childhood on the proper response. When the 2011 quake hit, despite the damage, only 25 of the country's 170 emergency response hospitals were knocked offline even temporarily. Because people felt they could count on the government to come through, nearly all civilians complied with evacuation orders and hardly any looted. Within two days, for all their failings at responding to the Fukushima nuclear crisis, Japanese officials had successfully evacuated half a million people and deployed 100,000 troops, 190 planes, 45 boats, 120,000 blankets, and 110,000 liters of gasoline. 

In many ways, the preparedness gap between Japan and the Philippines does, unfortunately, come down to money. Infrastructure is expensive; so are national preparedness programs and the sort of military that can mobilize so widely and so quickly. But the difference also gets to more elusive factors, about a government's power to not just deploy helicopters and clear roads but to earn its society's trust and, at the right moments, its compliance.

Why does the media report on the statements issued by the JTWC anyway? Why not just rely on reports from PAGASA? Not that it makes a whole lot of difference since the Philippines will get blasted either way but it would make reports a lot easier to comprehend and there would be less confusion as to the nature of the storm.

Another source of confusion is the name. The Philippines has its own typhoon naming system which differs from the international naming system. Just two week ago Typhoon Ompong pounded Northern Luzon. But just four years ago Typhoon Ompong was the strongest typhoon of the season to miss the Philippines.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/643398/super-typhoon-ompong-strongest-this-year-to-spare-ph

The name should have been retired in 2014 but it was not.  Why?

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Honolulu started monitoring and naming storms in the Western Pacific region in 1945, originally using female names in English alphabetical order. That list was revised in 1979 by introducing male names to be used in alternation with the female names. The Philippine Weather Bureau started naming storms within their area of responsibility in 1963, using female Filipino names ending in ng in native alphabetical order. The Bureau continued to monitor typhoons until the agency's abolition in 1972, after which its duties were transferred to the newly-established PAGASA. This often resulted in a Western Pacific cyclone carrying two names: an international name and a local name generally used within the Philippines. This two-name scheme is still followed today. 

Beginning in 2000, cyclone monitoring duties in the Western Pacific were transferred from the JTWC to the Japan Meteorological Agency, the RSMC of the World Meteorological Organization. The international naming scheme of the typhoons was replaced with a sequential list of names contributed by 14 nations in the region, including the Philippines. The new scheme largely uses terms for local features of the contributing nation, such as animals, plants, foods and adjectives in the native language. The rotation of names is based on the alphabetical order of the contributing nations. The Philippines, however, would maintain its own naming scheme for its local forecasts. In 2001, PAGASA revised its naming scheme to contain longer annual lists with a more mixed set of names.

Currently, the JMA and PAGASA each assign names to typhoons that form within or enter the Philippine Area of Responsibility. The JMA naming scheme for international use contains 140 names described above. The list is not restricted by year; the first name to be used in a typhoon season is the name after the last-named cyclone of the preceding season. The PAGASA naming scheme for Philippine use contains four lists, each containing twenty-five names arranged in alphabetical order. Every typhoon season begins with the first name in the assigned list, and the rolls of names are each reused every four years. An auxiliary list of ten names is used when the main list in a year had been exhausted. Not all Western Pacific cyclones are given names by both weather agencies, as JMA does not name tropical depressions, and PAGASA does not name cyclones outside the Philippine Area of Responsibility. 

In the case of both weather agencies, names are retired when a typhoon carrying it caused severe or costly damage and loss of life. Retirement is decided by the agencies' committees, although in PAGASA's case, names are routinely retired when the cyclone caused at least 300 deaths or ₱1 billion in damage in the Philippines. Retired names are replaced with another name for the next rotation, for JMA by the nation that submitted the retired name, and for PAGASA with a name sharing the same first letter as the retired name.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoons_in_the_Philippines#Storm_naming_conventions:_local_and_international_names

Why is PAGASA so bent on assigning their own names to typhoons? The JTWC started naming typhoons first in 1945 and then the bureau which eventually became PAGASA started naming typhoons in the PAR in 1963! And why is there a disparate measuring system between PAGASA and the JTWC? Shouldn't typhoons be classified and categorised according to an international standard? Imagine if each nation had its own Richter scale. 

The name Ompong was not retired in 2014 because it did not cause enough, it actually did not not cause any, destruction. Only about 80 people have died from Ompong this year which means the name will likely be kept in use and the next time it is used will only cause confusion again especially when the agencies are tracking the history of typhoons in the Philippines.

The Philippines would be better served if PAGASA adopted and maintained international standards or if the media did not issue reports with both international and local information.