The climate envoy had embarked on a tea-and-water only fast on the first day of the talks on Nov. 11, in a symbolic push for a good outcome. “I am famished. I am famished!” the senior climate envoy told AFP at the Warsaw National Stadium where the discussions ended in a number of consensus agreements. “My doctor says I should take it slowly, so in three days I will be eating normal food.”
Saño had pledged to fast until the last round of U.N. talks made “meaningful” progress toward fighting the climate change he blames for Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: “Haiyan”), which ravaged his country. “I would say, the COP (conference of parties, as these gatherings are known) did not come out with the kind of outcome I thought would have been meaningful. “But I also said that I will be fasting for the duration of the COP. This COP is about to close so I’ll be able to eat.”
Saño’s move was also meant as a show of solidarity with his countrymen, relatives and friends left stranded and hungry after the powerful storm swept through. The climate commissioner said he was pleased the Warsaw meeting had managed to agree on creating a “loss and damage” mechanism to deal with future harm caused by climate change events that can no longer be prevented. The mechanism is meant to help poor and vulnerable countries deal with extreme weather events like storms, but also slow-onset damage like land-encroaching sea level rise or desertification.
While no single weather event can be laid at the door of climate change, scientists warn that the Earth will see ever more severe storms, droughts and sea level rise as average temperatures increase on the back of fossil fuel combustion. Saño said he believed the typhoon that devastated the Philippines had added some impetus to this year’s round of U.N. talks. “The typhoon, I think, was in the back of everyone’s mind, there was a sense of urgency, but also a sense of solidarity and the reality of the suffering of so many people.”
Saño was worried about the scenes of destruction that will greet him when he gets home. “I stopped looking at the pictures (media’s) because it is just overwhelming. It will be overwhelming, to be back,” he said.
Saño’s action drew considerable attention and support at the U.N. talks, with hundreds of environment and humanitarian activists claiming to have joined his fast. The fraught negotiations ended with consensus among parties on cornerstone issues of an ambitious, global climate pact that will seek to stave off dangerous Earth warming.
