Secretary Roy Cimatu of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources on Sunday said the COVID-19 pandemic must be a time to re-focus and re-think efforts to mitigate climate change, especially to limit changes driven by human activities.
“With the recent developments during the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, it is also time to make more and more people aware of our commitments on climate change,” he said.
“This pandemic enables the people to reflect and think about their lives in the future. Therefore, this is also the best time to educate them about how their consumption behaviors affect climate change,” he added.
Undersecretary for Finance, Information Systems and Climate Change Analiza Rebuelta-Teh said the lockdown is the “time to limit climate change as we also face the challenges of urgently addressing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.”
“The conclusions in the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change or IPCC’s 6th report demand collective action to transform our economy, our behavior, and our lifestyle at all levels: individuals, communities, businesses, institutions, and governments,” she said.
Citing a report, she said climate change would be “bringing multiple different changes in the different regions which will all increase with further warming.”
“This means we must work beyond current action plans, and very swiftly because otherwise, the 1.5°C target by the end of the century will be beyond our reach,” she noted.