The Philippines wants big companies to accept responsibility for a devastating typhoon

“I AGONISE WAITINGUN for the word for the fate of my very own relatives… I speak for the countless people who will no longer be able to speak for themselves after perishing from the storm.” With these words, Yeb Sano, the Philippines’ representative to the 2013 climate summit in Warsaw, Poland, became the unexpected figurehead of those talks. Three days earlier, on November 8th, supertyphoon Haiyan had barrelled into his country, cutting off all communication with the outside world. More than 6,000 people died in the storm.Mr Sano’s emotional appeal to his fellow delegates drew a direct line between climate change and Haiyan. Whether the damage caused by extreme weather events can be linked to human emissions of greenhouse gases is one of the hottest topics in climate science. And that debate leads directly to another: if this link can be established, who bears the responsibility?