Climate change envoy reaches end of epic walk

Philippine climate change envoy Naderev Sano will reach on Saturday ground zero of the strongest typhoon ever to make landfall, completing an epic march he believes will help spur action against global warming.

Sano will end his 1,000-kilometer trek in Tacloban, a major city in the central Philippines that was among the worst hit when Super Typhoon Haiyan struck exactly one year ago.

"It's been a wonderful journey. Physically, the walk is starting to take a toll ... but everyone is in high spirits, and so am I," Sano said as he reached the final rest-stop in the typhoon-damaged town of Basey.

Sano and 12 other walkers have traveled an average of 25 kilometers a day since leaving Manila more than a month ago.

Sano, the Philippine representative to the United Nations' climate change negotiations, made world headlines last year when he fasted during the annual summit in Poland to protest the lack of meaningful progress on global warming.

The trek to Tacloban is another call to action, and he has garnered the support of global environment activist heavyweights, such as Greenpeace, Oxfam and Climate Action Network, as well as strong social media support.

The walk is also a show of solidarity for the millions of survivors of Haiyan, many of whom are enduring brutal poverty and living in areas that leave them dangerously exposed to the next big storm.

Haiyan left more than 7,350 people dead or missing as winds of 315 km/h and tsunami-like storm surges devastated poor farming and fishing communities.

The typhoon was an extreme weather event consistent with man-made climate change, the UN's weather agency said in March.

"We are under no illusions that the walk will change anything (in the climate change fight) overnight, but it is raising awareness," Sano said.

Environment heroes

A more tangible outcome of the journey was the overwhelming support of the local communities that the walkers have passed through, according to Sano.

"At the least, every person who we have encountered we can safely say we have converted them on climate change action and they will become local environmental heroes in their own communities," he said.

"Many of them promised to us they would continue the fight by organizing with their own communities to protect their natural resources."

Sano said every local government in the 40 towns they stopped in along the way had also signed commitments to take their own action on climate change, including developing strategies to cope with stronger storms.

Sano said the band of walkers had swelled to as many as 3,000 people at different stages of the trek, as school children and supporters in towns joined for a few hours or a day.