Developing countries, like the Philippines, continue to face uphill climate challenges. They are at the mercy of fiercer typhoons, droughts, heat waves, flooding, rising seas and increasingly insecure food and water.
Just last week, a global think tank ranked the Philippines as the country with the highest risk of experiencing multiple climate hazards in the world. The INFORM Global Risk Index 2019 of the Australia-based Institute for Economics and Peace said the country is highly exposed to hazards such as cyclones, floods, drought, and rising sea levels. The Philippines was followed by Japan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and five other countries in Asia with an estimated 971 million people who live in areas with high or very high exposure to climate hazards.
Just recently, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report estimated with confidence that there will be a further 1.5 degrees Celsius increase in Earth’s surface temperature between 2030 and 2052 with the potential effects such as rising land and sea temperatures in most of the world; extreme highly temperatures in most of the places where people live, with extreme lows at night; extreme rainfall in some places, and droughts in others; and continued sea level rise.
The effects of climate shocks on factors such as resource scarcity, livelihood security and displacement can greatly increase the risk of future violent conflict as well, according to the new report.
With all of these multifaceted challenges, the Philippines must not only effectively combat the threat climate change poses through local solutions on mitigation and adaptation. It must also work with representatives from more than 195 countries to work on a collective action plan to avert some of the worst effects of climate change. These decade-long meetings have been vital to find a global consensus on an issue that require global solution. Although progress has been much slower than needed, the process has worked to bring all countries, including the Philippines, to take concrete steps such as on reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, climate finance, strengthening resilience, and local climate actions.
Earlier, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said he would reject all official participation in climate change conferences that would require air travel. This pronouncement also came after President Rodrigo Duterte lamented the lack of accountability for big country polluters and the slow pace of the climate negotiations.
But Albay Representative Joey Salceda, chair of the House committee on climate change, said Locsin is violating the law by banning DFA officials from flying to take part in climate change conferences.
He cited Section 9 of Republic Act 9729 or the Climate Change Commission Act, which states that the Climate Change Commission (CCC) will coordinate with the DFA in representing the Philippines in climate change negotiations abroad.
“You are violating the law. Can I remind you that this is in the provisions and functions of the CCC Act,” Salceda said in a forum last week with CCC officials, various government representatives and civil society groups. Salceda also stressed that under the General Appropriations Act of 2019, the DFA is mandated to extend necessary technical, legal and logistical support to the Commission on the participation of the Philippine delegation in the climate talks.
During the forum, CCC Secretary Emmanuel De Guzman, provided updates on the climate change negotiations and the participation of the Philippines in the process.
He said the Philippines, as a leader of developing countries in the negotiation process, contributed to the key elements of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, such as the inclusion of overarching provisions that ensure climate justice and ecosystems integrity in addressing climate change.
As Chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum in 2015, the Philippines, on behalf of 48 developing countries, led the advocacy for the ambitious global warming threshold of 1.5C as the long-term temperature goal of the Paris Agreement to address the changing climate. He said the country succeeded in retaining the focus on loss and damage and in introducing comprehensive risk assessment and management in the Paris Agreement. The Philippines also succeeded in making sure that scaled-up financial resources must aim for a balance between adaptation and mitigation, De Guzman said. “We advocated for adaptation finance to solely be in the form of grants, and not loans. Prior to the Paris Agreement, it was the Philippines that championed “direct access” modality in the finance negotiations.”
As regards commitments of Parties for climate adaptation and mitigation or the national determined contributions (NDCs), the Philippines will assert developing countries’ right to development, and promote the accounting of emissions avoidance instead of emissions reduction as most developing countries are only emitting “survival emissions.” The country has actively engaged in the discussions in order to ensure the application of flexibility for developing countries and offer options that take into account the country’s capacity for NDC planning.
As regards means of implementation, under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), developed countries have the obligation to provide financial resources, including for technology transfer and capacity building, needed by developing countries to meet the costs of adaptation and mitigation. Under the Paris Agreement, they are to biennially communicate, not only the actual support provided, but also indicative support to be given to developing countries by 2020. At the 24th Conference of Parties (COP24) in Katowice, Poland last year, De Guzman said countries agreed to initiate the setting of a new collective quantified climate finance goal from a floor of 100 billion dollars per year by 2020. “The Philippines should be part of this process to continue the call for scaled up and predictable finance flows and enhanced access of developing countries to the means of implementation,” he said.
As regards the carbon market mechanism, the Paris Agreement established a new mitigation and sustainable development mechanism that provides the basis for using carbon markets to achieve national emission reduction targets. Finalizing the guidance on cooperative approaches and modalities and procedures for the mechanism is the important remaining work at COP25 or climate talks in Santiago Chile this year to fully operationalize the Paris Agreement.
“The Philippines will continue its call for environmental integrity in the tracking of emission reduction units and ensure that developing countries get a fair share of these units, which they could eventually use in achieving their NDCs. We will also push for a simplified project cycle and an efficient support structure for governance and operation, to significantly reduce transaction costs and processing time,” De Guzman said.
On the negotiations arena, De Guzman said there is a need to continue to advance our national interests on the remaining elements of the Paris Agreement Work Programme and its detailed guidelines, and the regular negotiating workstreams on the delivery of the means of implementation.
“With the continued engagement and support of Congress, national government agencies, and the civil society groups, the Philippines will continue to be a strong voice in the negotiations,” De Guzman said.
Like other poorer countries, the Philippines, is pleading for the UN climate change negotiations to be ambitious, considering that they face some of the global warming’s worst ravages. Indeed, positive outcome to address this global issue lies in the hands of the UN-backed international climate change negotiations to draw up a sweeping pact to combat climate change.
Imelda Abano is the president of the Philippine Network of Environmental Journalists.