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Global climate talks



Yeb Sano: unlikely climate justice star









John Vidal meets the Filipino diplomat whose emotional reaction to typhoon Haiyan made him the face of UN climate talks














Filipino delegate Yeb Sano is pictured during a press conference at the United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference COP19/CMP9 in Warsaw, Poland, 19 November 2013. Photograph: Pawel Supernak/EPA




John Vidal in Manila


Tuesday 1 April 2014 08.46 EDT







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Yeb Sano, the young Filipino diplomat who became the face of the UN climate talks in Poland last year when he wept and fasted for two weeks after super-typhoon Haiyan devastated his country, is now an unlikely climate justice superstar. He has the same job, the same friends and he still displays the same shy emotionalism mixed with intellect, but he now talks confidently to crowds of thousands, is invited around the world, advises governments, signs letters with Nobel prizewinners and, instead of regulation climate negotiator dark suit and tie, he wears sharp shirts .
"It's been crazy since Warsaw," he says, immediately after addressing 1,000 people at a graduation ceremony in Manila last week. "I have been told that at least 300 delegates fasted with me at the talks, as well as the Archbishop of Canterbury and the head of the church of Sweden. A petition of one million signatures was collected by churches and faith groups. I hate being the face of a movement but I do believe sometimes movements have to have a face."
When he left Warsaw in November, high but exhausted from days without food and long nights of negotiations, his father's home town of Tacloban lay in ruins. He had not heard from many of his relatives who lived there and had barely spoken to his brother who had been in the thick of the rescue attempts, gathering dead bodies from the rubble.
His colleagues feared for his health but he says he recovered quickly. "Having fasted for two weeks I was energised, alive. I was looking forward to being back with the family. I was very emotional. My family was waiting. In the end we evacuated my relations from the city and brought them to Manila. Their houses were a shambles. They had no electricity or food."
He finally went to Tacloban on 20 December. "Some relations had been reluctant to leave. It was very emotional embracing my father's relations. They were in evacuation centres. They were OK. None had perished. I went to Dad's home. I saw people getting back on their feet and collaborating."



An entire neighbourhood is destroyed in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan on November 13, 2013 in Tacloban, Leyte, Philippines. Photograph: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images


"Yolanda [the local name for typhoon Haiyan] was catastrophic but it brought good things too," he says. "There was a surge of brilliant ideas on the ground from Filipino and international NGOs. People came up with really creative ways to build shelters, and help each other. They gave so much, like new fishing boats. It was heartwarming."
But bad things also happened: "I got attacked on Twitter every day. We don't take the trolls seriously, but I do get affected easily. I find it extraordinary that despite the mountains of evidence [of climate change] and the suffering that we see, there are those who resort to vicious attacks."
The catastrophe has woken the Philippines at least to the reality of climate change, he says. "I would like to believe we have changed and I do see some sort of awakening in the official mind. Even the economists have understood the risks. I still get the sceptics, but the evidence is now overwhelming. It's not a debate now."
But he despairs at how much work must be done to prepare for the kind of kind of threats that UN climate scientists warned about this week. "The fact is we are not ready. We have a coastline of 37,000 miles. How can we possibly defend that from sea level rise? Sixty per cent of our people live in low-lying areas which may flood. It will be probably be 4C warmer – that will seriously impact on our fisheries, our cities, our coral reefs, our food supplies, our economy. Everything we know will be compromised. We know it will happen. We cannot despair but we have to use every dollar of our budget to build resilience. It needs careful planning. That's what we can do."
He learned from the voluntary work he does with a community in the Camotes Islands, near Cebu city. "Nobody died there even though Yolanda hit it hard. Why? Because they had organised themselves for disaster management. They had typhoon drills every year, alerts and warnings. That needs to be done in communities everywhere. I am advocating storm shelters for the Philippines, like Bangladesh."
Sano, who trained as a lawyer, came to the Filipino government after being a student environmental activist and spending 13 years with WWF, where he helped set up their climate change policy. He says he did not feel like a natural government man: "I was dragged into government. I imagined I would retire with civil society. After three tries at being coy, I signed up for a six-year term." This will take him beyond the expected Paris finale of the UN talks in December 2015.



Naderev Sano of the Philippines breaks down in tears at the Warsaw climate conference Photograph: theguardian.com


As leader of the Filipino delegation, he is professionally optimistic of a good result but despairs of the wranglings between countries. In Bonn last month, he says: "countries fought over a procedural matter [about] whether we wanted a once and for all agreement. It was problematic. Developing countries are united on wanting to establish a formal structure."
"The elephant in the room is really Barack Obama. [For the talks to succeed] we need firm promises and commitments from him. But we also need a convention that binds all governments to do something. We have reached the era when everyone has responsibility. If not, then it will be an endless debate about who is responsible.
"Climate change is an emergency for us. We don't care much about what history should dictate, but the present. Those countries that have achieved a certain level of wealth have a responsibility. But the notion of sovereign states is problematic. You cannot compare one country with another. This is not just about the environment, but climate justice."
Later this year he is expected to join a 38-day international climate march from Manila to the battered city of Tacloban, arriving on the anniversary of Yolanda. "It will be to tell the world that climate change is here, but also that we can adapt to climate change, that we are resilient," he says.



Topics



Global climate talks




Climate change




Activism




Sea level




Typhoon Haiyan



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Natural disasters and extreme weather




Philippines




Asia Pacific








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