EASTERN SAMAR, Philippines — A decade after Super Typhoon Haiyan, locally known as Yolanda, ravaged the Philippines, the town of Salcedo in Eastern Samar took a groundbreaking step. 

The local government passed the Philippines’ first-ever climate accountability resolution, a significant move to hold corporations and governments responsible for their role in accelerating the climate crisis. 

Climate accountability is one mechanism to hold businesses and governments for worsening typhoons and other climate-induced disasters in developing countries like the Philippines, Nezika Berongoy, founder of Salcedo’s youth environmental group Sudao Generation Ready for Environmental Education and Action (G.R.E.E.N) Minds, told Climate Tracker Asia. 

The resolution seeks accountability for actions contributing to climate change and its impacts on Salcedo residents. 

It empowers the local chief executive, within the bounds of Salcedo’s local autonomy and its constitutional obligation to protect a healthy environment, to take all necessary and appropriate actions to address climate change and its effects. 

The resolution also directs the local government to “pursue any and all actions on behalf of the people of Salcedo for the losses and damage inflicted upon the communities due to the impacts of extreme weather events.”

“This resolution means the municipality of Salcedo stands with its people in demanding that climate polluters be held accountable for their role in worsening climate change—and we urge our fellow vulnerable communities, whether in Eastern Samar or in the rest of the Philippines, to join us in this call,” said Salcedo Mayor Rochelle Mergal. 

The local government of Salcedo, a fifth class municipality, passed the climate accountability resolution on November 10, 2023, just two days after the 10th anniversary of Haiyan. 

Over 6,000 lives were lost and more than 1,000 people remain missing in the aftermath of Haiyan, one of the world’s most destructive cyclones.

Coastal community at risk

Photo shows the municipal hall of Salcedo town in Eastern Samar. (Queenee Tisha Dela Cruz)

Salcedo is located along the eastern seaboard of Eastern Visayas, one of the provinces in the Philippines most severely affected by climate change impacts due to its location facing the Pacific Ocean and being along the path of typhoons.

According to Salcedo’s Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction Management Plan (MDDRMP), typhoons are currently considered high-risk across all villages in the town. The municipality experiences an average of five to six extreme weather events annually, with at least one or two typically causing significant damage and loss of life. 

Haiyan, in particular, caused widespread destruction. Infrastructure, including schools and government buildings, suffered 100% damage. Ninety-five percent of homes were totally destroyed, with only 5% sustaining partial damage. The estimated cost of this devastation reached P2.79 billion. 

“Salcedo and our neighbouring municipalities are coastal communities—we bear the brunt of extreme weather here. Repeated climate change impacts make it hard for our people to recover each time, and severely limits our capacity to address this crisis,” Mergal said. 

‘First step’

The resolution is seen as a crucial first step in holding major corporations accountable for their emissions.

“It should not stop with just passing the resolution, it needs immediate and sustainable actions from the local government,” Berongoy said.

She also underscored the importance of a human rights-based approach to climate accountability.

“This (resolution) assists the lawmakers and policymakers to hold carbon majors, financiers, and the government accountable for paying damages, and making amends for the losses, harms, and destruction to communities, economically or non-economic,” Berongoy said. 

Globally, there is a growing wave of climate-driven political and legal attempts to hold big businesses and governments accountable for their role in fueling climate change. 

In the Philippines, the proposed Climate Accountability (CLIMA) Act, introduced in November 2023, aims to establish a legal framework to address climate-related loss and damage and hold those responsible accountable.

The authors of the CLIMA Act stressed the urgent necessity of a law that guarantees legal remedies for climate-related human rights violations. 

“Without a legal framework to address loss and damage from climate change impacts, corporations will continue to defend and promote their unbridled burning of fossil fuels,” House Bill 9609 read. 

In 2022, a landmark report by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) declared that businesses and governments have moral obligations to address the climate crisis, although the report is not legally binding.