Last Thursday, I attended the Shell Powering Progress Together (PPT) conference held at Manila Hotel. Since 2012, through the PPT, Shell has brought together some of the world’s leading thinkers from business, government and civil society to engage in a dialogue on future energy challenges. The goal also is to trigger concrete on-the-ground action and cooperation to implement solutions to these challenges. This year’s Asia PPT had for its theme: “Collaboration for a sustainable future.”
During the PPT last Thursday, I joined a panel on “Energy Transitions and the Climate Challenge” with David Hone, Chief Climate Change Adviser, Shell International Ltd; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group 1 Co-chair, Dr. Edvin Aldrian from Indonesia; and Philippine Department of Energy Secretary, Hon. Zenaida Y. Monsada.
In our panel, I shared my thoughts about the Paris Agreement and what it meant for the Philippines and the Asia-Pacific region. I started by acknowledging how we are all feeling the heat with the world getting warmer every year; in fact even monthly temperatures, like that in February, has been breaking records.
Just a few weeks ago, Fiji recorded the strongest storm in history, displacing Haiyan/Yolanda which previously held the record. In the new normal, it will not be long before Fiji would have to yield that record to another unfortunate country. But never mind the storms; the impact of climate change can be more insidious when subtler. Examples are the drought that is causing havoc to our agriculture sector right now, the coral bleaching destroying precious marine resources all over the world, and the public health crisis that is exacerbated by climate change. What makes climate change so unjust is that, even as it spares no one, its biggest impact is on poor countries and poor communities who have contributed the least to the problem.
Vulnerable countries, like the Philippines, have committed to contribute significantly to mitigate the problem even if our emissions are low. Taken together, of course, these emissions would still add up and increase the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. We also cannot be on high moral ground and ask other countries to reduce their emissions while we refuse to take action. We must not contribute to our own destruction if we expect other countries to help us when we are faced with catastrophic climate events.
I emphasized that Paris was not just a culmination of six years of hard work to find a good way to move forward, globally, on climate change. In fact, Paris stands out because it is the first climate change agreement where every country bound itself to contribute to solve the problem. That’s why last Dec. 12, 2015 when French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius announced that the agreement had been adopted, there was pandemonium, even jubilation. Those of us from the Philippines who were in that hall when the announcement was made—Secretary Manny de Guzman, Secretary Neric Acosta, diplomat Angela Ponce, and myself—were up on our feet, cheering, embracing each other.
One hundred ninety-six countries agreeing on a legally binding road map to mitigating and adapting to climate change is huge. That’s all countries of the world, minus the Vatican which usually does not become a party to a convention like this. The Church was, however, very active though in Paris, spreading the message of Pope Francis’ Laudato Si, urging the world’s leaders to have moral courage in addressing climate change.
President Aquino, in his statements and the positions he ordered the Philippine delegation to take in Paris, definitely showed moral courage and leadership. That delegation led by Secretary De Guzman, vice chair of the Climate Change Commission, composed of both veterans and next-generation climate workers, were one of the most effective in Paris. We were everywhere, in almost all the issues, shaping the agreement, always advocating the interests of our people and of vulnerable countries. Civil society recognized the delegation three times in two weeks in Paris with “Ray of the Day” awards for being a strong voice for strong climate action.
It must of course be said that the Paris Agreement is not a perfect, certainly not ambitious enough to avoid catastrophic climate change. There is also not enough support—especially climate finance—made available in the agreement.
But there are two reasons why Paris is an important step forward: First, to get 196 countries to agree to the maximum possible agreement and not to the least common denominator is beyond expectation. Second, the Paris Agreement has two important mechanisms for the future—first, a self-improvement mechanism which allows us to increase ambition every five years; second, a loss-and-damage mechanism that allows countries in the region to get compensation and support for loss and damage arising from climate change.
The Philippines and other vulnerable countries worked hard for a global target of limiting global temperature increase to a maximum of 1.5 Celsius degrees. We got that, even if it is only aspirational. Now, we must aim to make that number the mandatory target as early as possible.
Against all odds, we succeeded in getting strong language on human rights and ecosystems integrity into the Paris agreement. Responding to climate change should not be just about carbon but people and nature must be at the center of it.
Citizens must make their governments accountable to legal commitments they made in Paris. For the Philippines, we committed to a 70-percent reduction of business-as-usual emissions by 2030, the achievement of which we made conditional on the support of partners.
To the best that I can estimate, taking into account our forests which makes us a net sink today, this Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) is a 10-percent reduction from current levels. That’s still ambitious because we are expected to grow our emissions in the next few years, with new coal power plants in the pipeline. But it is doable and it is equivalent to most of our neighbors’ commitments.
New laws are needed to mandate a more diverse energy mix, among others capping coal, and to ensure that externalities are incorporated into energy decisions. Putting a price on carbon, whether through a carbon tax or other economic instrument, is a good option to consider moving forward.
Protecting and enhancing our forests and transforming our transportation system are key areas to prioritize if we are to meet our target.
The private sector must accelerate investment in renewables and, through the collaboration of academe, foster innovation so we can adapt better and mitigate more efficiently. Citizen and activist organizations must hold government and private sector accountable for their actions and commitments. And finally, communities, families and individuals must look at the way they live and transition to a less carbon intensive lifestyle.
In conclusion, climate change challenges the government, the private sector, civil society, peoples, communities, families, and individuals to change (pun intended). Only in transforming the way we live, which includes collaborating better for sustainable solutions, will we be able to overcome this great, some say greatest, challenge of today and the future.
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