The Philippines: Commitment issues in combatting climate change

The Conference of Parties (COP), a yearly conference of countries that tackle climate change, will be happening this December in Paris, France. Already on its 21st year, the Paris COP will determine the fate of people and planet. Will countries be able to commit to a fair, ambitious, and legally binding deal that will determine our survival and quality of life? Or will it be another failure just like what happened in the COP15 in Copenhagen?

 

With the COP21 just around the corner, we are seeing more countries submit their Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) to the United Nations. The INDC is a set of commitment targets by each country which serves as their contribution in creating a climate-resilient future.

 

Many countries have already submitted their INDC, the latest one being Dominican Republic. As governments try to reach the target of below 2 degrees celsius of global warming since pre-industrial period, the question is, are the commitments enough?

 

The Philippines, one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, has yet to submit its INDC to the UN. Last July 24, the Climate Change Commission opened its consultation to civil society. However, the process of the consultation remains to be questionable.

 

According to the World Research Institute, the INDC should be a transparent process as this will help in holding stakeholders accountable. Commissioner Heherson Alvarez of the Climate Change Commission, in his article in Responding to Climate Change (RTCC), criticized the Philippine process, “I must confess that there is none in the way of a transparent, comprehensive, and credible process where key stakeholders are actively engaged.”

 

Gene Ferrer, National Coordinator of Aksyon Klima, agrees. “There was no real consultation that happened that included Civil Society Organizations (CSO). When they called us, we were hoping that they could show us the INDC paper but they only showed us the process, which included consultations from government agencies and the business sector, but they did not even tell us what they had talked about,” Ferrer said.

 

This kind of consultation is the worst kind, says Chris Wright, a climate activist who has been tracking the climate negotiations. “When you look at some of the worst consultations done on the INDC’s around the world, they look much more like presentations that patronize rather than engage their citizens and NGO’s," he said.

 

This how exactly CSO’s feel in the recent consultations, which snubbed the civil society sector. “We feel that the CSO voice is not welcome to the table,” Ferrer added.

 

Another issue that has angered and frustrated climate activists and civil society in the country is the continuous investment of the government in dirty energy. The government has approved more than 40 coal power plants to be built in the next few years, despite calls for other countries to mitigate carbon emissions. “Secretary Sering said she cannot seem defend to the president why we need to stop the approvals of coal power plants when our economy has grown because of it,” Ferrer said.

 

The economy has grown but at what cost? At the cost of environmental degradation and health hazards?

 

With these developments, we cannot help but ask: is this government truly sincere in addressing climate change and are we ready to commit to combatting climate change? No, not if the Department of Energy (DOE) projects a rise of over 31% of carbon emissions per capita over a 20-year period from 2010 to 2030. While other countries have committed to lowering their carbon emissions, it seems the Philippines has committed to increasing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.

 

Yes, we are a vulnerable country and we have experienced the devastating effects of climate change impacts in our country. Yes, we have contributed very little to the climate change we are experiencing now when compared to the carbon emissions of developed nations. But is this an excuse for us not to act on climate change, not just in terms of adaptation but also in mitigation? With the growing economy of the Philippines, shouldn’t we all the more think about sustainable development?

 

At this point, the Philippines’ INDC is clearly unambitious, insincere, not transparent, and non-inclusive. The commitments we have made are commitments straight out of our noses, something seemingly done just because we are required to commit something. What we need are commitments that think of long-term solutions to climate change, commitments that will listen to the people’s voices, and commitments that will put people and planet over profit. Until then, we are only betraying our countrymen who have already suffered and are currently suffering from climate change impacts.

 

The Climate Change Commission and Secretary Sering has been contacted for a statement regarding the matter but has not replied as of press time.

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Renée Juliene Karunungan, 25, is the Advocacy Director of Dakila. Dakila has been campaigning for climate justice since 2009. She is also a climate tracker for Adopt A Negotiator.

 

The views expressed in this essay are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of this website.