“Each destructive typhoon season costs us 2% of our GDP, and the reconstruction costs, a further 2%, which means we lose nearly 5% of our economy every year to storms. We have not seen any money from the rich countries to help us to adapt … We cannot go on like this. It cannot be a way of life that we end up running always from storms,” he said. He later told the assembly: “Climate change negotiations cannot be based on the way we currently measure progress. It is a clear sign of planetary and economic and environmental dysfunction … The whole world, especially developing countries struggling to address poverty and achieve social and human development, confronts these same realities.”
Saño could not be reached because phone lines to Manila were down, but he was thought to be on his way to Warsaw for the U.N. talks, which resume on Monday. This time, his country has been battered by the even stronger super-typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful ever recorded anywhere – 25 miles (40km) wide and reaching astonishing speeds of possibly 200mph (322km/h).
We don’t yet know the exact death toll or damage done, but we do know that the strength of tropical storms, such as Haiyan or Bopha, is linked to sea temperature. As the oceans warm with climate change, there is extra energy in the system. Storms may not be increasing in frequency but Pacific Ocean waters are warming faster than expected, and there is a broad scientific consensus that typhoons are now increasing in strength.
Typhoon Haiyan, like Bopha, will be seen widely in developing countries as a taste of what is to come, along with rising sea levels and water shortages. But, what alarms the governments of vulnerable countries the most is that they believe rich countries have lost the political will to address climate change at the speed needed to avoid catastrophic change in years to come.
From being on top of the global political agenda just four years ago, climate change is now barely mentioned by the political elites in London or Washington, Tokyo or Paris. Australia is not even sending a junior minister to Warsaw. The host, Poland, will be using the meeting to celebrate its coal industry. The pitifully small pledges of money made by rich countries to help developing countries, such as the Philippines or Bangladesh, to adapt to climate change have barely materialized. Meanwhile, fossil fuel subsidies are running at more than $500bn (£311bn) a year and vested commercial interests are increasingly influencing the talks. As the magnitude of the adverse impacts of human-induced climate change becomes apparent, the most vulnerable countries say they have no option but to go on alone. The good news is that places such as Bangladesh, Nepal, the small island states of the Pacific and Caribbean, and many African nations, are all starting to adapt their farming, fishing and cities, to the situation. But, coping with major storms, as well as sea level rise and water shortages, is expected to cost poor countries trillions of dollars, which they do not have.
