MANILA -- In observance of World Humanitarian Day, the Climate Change Commission (CCC) urges world leaders to take meaningful climate action for the world’s most vulnerable populations.

Every year on August 19th, the World Humanitarian Day is observed to advocate for the survival, well-being, and dignity of people affected by humanitarian crises, and to honor and support the humanitarian aid workers who put their lives on the line to help the affected people during times of crisis.

This year's observance comes as the world continues to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdowns, and disasters from extreme weather, and in the face of humanitarian emergencies as in Afghanistan and Haiti. Humanitarian workers have carried out many acts of bravery and provided a safe space and basic necessities to vulnerable affected populations.

For 2021, the theme, "#TheHumanRace: A global challenge for climate action in solidarity with the people who need it most," stresses that humanity is racing against the clock of the climate emergency, presenting a global race challenge like no other.

The climate emergency is wreaking havoc across the world at a scale that people on the front lines and in the humanitarian community cannot manage. Droughts, heatwaves, raging wildfires and horrific floods are shattering the lives of millions of people, causing them to lose their homes, livelihoods and sometimes even their lives. The time is already running out for millions of the world’s most vulnerable people – those who have contributed least to the global climate emergency but are hit the hardest.

Following the release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report from Working Group I, which presented the unequivocal causation by humans of the “widespread and rapid” changes to Earth’s climate, the CCC urges world leaders to pay attention to the immediate human cost and consequences of the climate emergency for the world’s most vulnerable people, and to ensure that their voices are heard and their needs top the agenda of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) on 31 October to 12 November 2021.

As the consequences of climate change will continue to get worse with inaction, the CCC emphasizes that now is the only time to run together towards the greatest race of our lifetime – to save people and planet. (CCC)