Climate polluter’s profit denounced when Basyang hits Visayas, Mindanao

MANILA — An environmentalist group reiterated its condemnation of major entities that contribute to the devastating storms in the country following the impacts of Tropical Storm Basyang (Penha) in Visayas and Mindanao.

Greenpeace Philippines expressed their disgust after British giant oil and gas company Shell recently announced its $18.5 billion in annual profits last year. 

Read: Philippine science backs Odette survivors’ claims in Shell case

The advocacy group said Shell’s profit is a stark reminder of how fossil fuel companies continue to earn money while many people suffer, highlighting that Shell was one of the top 20 highest carbon-emitting entities in 2024.

“These obscene profits of fossil fuel companies are grossly unfair—benefiting only a few while placing the majority at the receiving end of extreme weather events,” Jefferson Chua, climate campaigner of Greenpeace Philippines, said in a statement.

A 2024 study of the international scientific partnership World Weather Attribution (WWA) found that the chance of having multiple typhoons will continue to increase in the Philippines as long as the burning of fossil fuels continues. The study came after six consecutive typhoons hit the northern part of the country from late October to November in the same year.

Read: Climate activists criticize continued financing of fossil fuel amid ‘energy transition’ 

As of 8 a.m. of February 10, over 85,000 individuals in Western Visayas, Central Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Negros Island Region, Northern Mindanao, and Caraga are still unsettled because of Basyang based on a report of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC). Over 59,000 persons are still in evacuation centers.

Meanwhile, there were 12 reported deaths in the affected regions in Mindanao, of which seven were confirmed.

Four of the fatalities died in a landslide incident in Barangay Agusan, Cagayan de Oro, while three others drowned in floods in barangays Saray and Tambacan in Iligan City and in Carmen, Agusan del Norte.

The group pointed out that the firm is facing a landmark damages case filed by 103 Filipino survivors of “climate-fueled” Super Typhoon Odette (Rai), which hit the islands in 2021.

Greenpeace Philippines urged Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to eliminate fossil fuels and make climate justice a national priority. 

It also called on the national legislature to pass the Climate Accountability (CLIMA) Bill, which seeks to hold major carbon-polluting companies to account and compensate communities for climate-related losses and damages.

“Let us not wait for the economic costs and death toll to pile up further before we recognize that people’s welfare must come before corporate profits,” the environmental group pointed out. (RTS, RVO)

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