MANILA – Lawyer climate leaders and activists demand serious climate change action framework towards climate and environmental justice by switching to clean energy sources.

The Climate Reality Project (TCRP) climate leader Floro Francisco said that we have been experiencing unusual and extreme weather conditions due to our careless and uncontrollable utilization of dirty energy like coal, oil and gas which in effect produces a lot of greenhouse gases trapping a lot of extra heat rising up the temperature of our planet.

The TCRP is a global climate movement founded by Nobel laureate and former United States vice president Al Gore.

Francisco, also the former assistant general manager of the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) explained that extreme heat accelerates evaporation and warm air holds more moisture increasing more water vapor in the atmosphere resulting to an increase of rainfall.

For Miguel Magalang, also a TCRP leader and disaster risk reduction specialist, the extreme weather conditions means longer and deeper droughts killing crops and livelihoods, even people; more intense typhoons, heavy rainfall resulting to flooding and mudslides.

"The solution for climate crisis should start from ourselves, however, leaders' political will is also a need - it is a moral imperative above all else," Magalang added.

Atty. Persida Rueda-Acosta, chief of the Public Attorney’s Office, also a TRCP leader meanwhile said that countries with high-level carbon emissions like the United States must lead in this global change through deeper emission cuts.

“Dirty energy means dirty weather, and dirty weather leads to disasters. We need legally binding agreements which all of humanity is treated equally in the principles of climate justice – top emitters of greenhouse gases (GHG) like China, the United States, the European Union, India and Russia,” explained Acosta.

In line with the observance of the National Climate Change Consciousness Week, Acosta revealed that by next year, most transactions at PAO offices will be paperless.*