Philippine Daily Inquirer | Dec 19, 2009
By Michael Lim Ubac
COPENHAGEN— President Macapagal-Arroyo has called for “a new global order” to combat climate change amid the continued failure of negotiators here to clinch a deal to cut heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere.
She was the 35th speaker to address the plenary session.
“We come to Copenhagen in partnership with other nations to find a way to meet the harsh impacts of climate change and avert a global climate crisis,” Ms Arroyo said, addressing the high-level plenary session of the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 in Copenhagen (COP15) at 5 p.m. Thursday (midnight in Manila).
The President boarded a chartered Philippine Airlines flight to Manila yesterday at 9:10 a.m. (4:10 p.m. in Manila). She was accompanied by her husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, and a lean delegation composed of a handful of Cabinet members and House representatives.
She skipped the formal closing as well as the traditional family photo of the 119 heads of state and government attending the climate summit here as the restive Mayon Volcano threatens to erupt soon.
In her plenary session address on Thursday, Ms Arroyo said: “It is time to harmonize economic development with environmental protection in a new global order where they are not mutually exclusive, but synonymous. It is time all countries of the world owned up to our collective responsibilities. Solving this problem will certainly take years, but we need to start the process now.”
The President issued the call as she delivered the National Statement along with 119 heads of state and government who are here in hopes of sealing a climate deal to cut carbon emissions and provide funds to help developing nations adapt to the disastrous effects of a warming planet.
Bigger emission cuts
President Arroyo stressed the Philippine position along with other poor and developing nations on the need for bigger cuts in gas emissions and for the availability of funds to support climate change measures in poor countries.
“We cannot afford to leave Copenhagen without a deal, based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. For an equitable outcome, developed countries need to lead in reducing emissions,” she said.
A robust financial mechanism must also be established to meet the costs of adaptation for developing countries and for effective development and transfer of technologies, the President said.
Ms Arroyo noted US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s “groundbreaking announcement” that the United States was “prepared to work with other countries toward a goal of jointly mobilizing $100 billion a year by 2020 to address the climate change needs of developing countries.”
The Filipino carbon footprint
The President also highlighted this stark contrast: The average person in the world has a per capita carbon footprint of 6 tons, while the average Filipino has a per capita carbon footprint of only 1.6 tons. But the Philippines is in the top 12 countries facing the greatest risk from the effects of climate change.
She said the 6-ton average carbon dioxide (CO2) emission must be brought down to 3 tons to stabilize at 450 parts per million (ppm) in 2050. PPM is current level of CO2 in the atmosphere.
“The Philippines is already doing better than that. Our emission is only 1.6 tons per capita, and we are further committed to deviate by 20 percent from our business-as-usual emissions growth path,” she said.
The President, however, did not specify a timeline, or even a specific amount for adaptation funds.
Legarda fills in gaps
Sen. Loren Legarda, the United Nations ambassador for disaster risk reduction (DRR), filled in the gaps in a separate high-level forum with other women world leaders.
Legarda said the country had a measly 0.2 percent share in the greenhouse gases present in the atmosphere, the main culprit for global warming.
Large concentration of greenhouse gases, which include C02, trap heat, leading to a rise in global temperature, which melts North Pole glaciers and triggers sea level rise and subsequent flooding. It also causes droughts and stronger, more frequent cyclones.
In 2006 alone, China was the No. 1 emitter with 21.5 percent of global share, followed by the United States, 20.2 percent; Russia, 5.5 percent; India, 5.4 percent; and Japan, 4.6 percent.
Climate justice
In several speeches at the climate conference, Legarda sought climate justice for vulnerable nations such as the Philippines and other Pacific nations.
“I speak in behalf of the vulnerable nations who have nothing to do with greenhouse gas emissions in the world because 20 percent are contributed by China and 20 percent by the United States, almost half of GHG emissions,” said the senator, the UN regional champion for climate change adaptation and DRR.
But in terms of per capita emission, the United States is five times more than China, Legarda said.
Walk the talk
“From a nation with insignificant share of the global carbon emissions, I, as Philippine senator and climate change committee chair, … am taking the cudgels for small developing vulnerable nations to pressure developed nations to walk their talk and come up with an agreement in Copenhagen,” she said.
She called on rich nations to allocate funding for adaptation of vulnerable nations under the polluter-must-pay principle.
Legarda first addressed the meeting on climate change of the Inter-Parliamentary Union at the Denmark parliament on Wednesday, then shared the limelight with US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Finland President Tarja Halonen on the issue of the leadership role of women in combating global warming on Thursday at the COP15 conference venue.
In both instances, she was the only Asian leader asked to speak before a global audience of women leaders.
Not in the form of loans
“So climate justice is something that must be had, must be agreed upon and while it is appreciated that countries like the Maldives with only half a million people are going carbon neutral in 10 years, this actually is simply a political statement that will not make a dent in terms of reducing carbon emissions of the world,” said Legarda.
The Philippines must really pressure the developed nations to commit to deeper cuts and to allocate funds for adaptation for countries.
“But these funds must not be in the form of loans because these loans will just bring poor countries into deeper debt. It must be grants, not loans because these concessional loans only benefit the developed nations,” she said.
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