The investigatory nature of this report and its comprehensive breadth make it more of a fact-finding document than an adjudicative one. The report gathers and organizes essential information that creates a foundation for advocates in both legal spheres (litigation) and direct action circles (campaigns) to utilize in holding fossil fuel and Carbon Majors accountable.
One of the biggest achievements of the National Inquiry on Climate Change regards to its people-centered approach. Mirroring styles like truth commissions and peoples tribunals, the Commission successfully centered the experiences and voices of those who have been most impacted by climate change. As one of the witnesses at the Commission stated: “Our experiences have been recognized and validated, even if we are not climate science experts, but as frontline community members who have been negatively impacted by climate change as a result of the continuing fossil fuel business.”
Second, the final report serves as a key tool in resisting corporate capture of climate policy. The report exposed and neatly documented the insidious campaign by carbon majors and fossil fuel companies to deny the devastating impacts that their activities were having on the climate, and thus, on people. Having this consolidated and thorough account of how corporations have captured government spaces and other decision-making bodies, not to mention the public narrative around climate change, provides a solid foundation on which to rely on to resist further attempts by corporations to continue obfuscating their role in the climate crisis, for instance through the promotion of false solutions and greenwashing.
Third, the report provides a pathway for the Philippines, and all States, to strengthen its human rights obligations by regulating the activities of corporations within its borders but also extraterritorially. The transnational nature of the carbon majors, as presented in the Commission's report, highlights the need for states to “use their influence in international policy fora to create an enabling environment for the realization of human rights.” This includes the incorporation of international agreements and standards into domestic legal frameworks which prevents States from allowing or supporting environmentally-dangerous practices by corporations.
Since the Philippines is the fifth most climate change affected country according to the Global Climate Risk Index, the holding of this investigation and the framework that it created might propel other states who are similarly positioned to the Philippines to host their own investigations.