Ex-commish says climate solutions will not curb PHL development

Former Philippine climate change commissioner Yeb Saño on Tuesday countered claims that honoring the country's commitment to reduce carbon emissions would run counter to development plans.

"Solving climate change does not have to be incompatible with social and economic development," Saño said in a statement,

He also pointed out that pushing for a "development paradigm" that was climate-friendly was about "a desire to see system change," and not just for compliance for reduced emissions.

"Bringing the Philippines to the 'age of industrialization' does not need to be dependent on fossil fuels, and can be done through sustainable development anchored on renewable energy... Climate solutions will not constrain our development. On the contrary, fossil fuels such as coal is a fuel of choice of oligarchs and the economic elite, because its value chain is controlled by a few," he said.

"The main motivation for the Philippines in transforming our development paradigm into one that is also climate-friendly is not necessarily reduction of emissions or an esthetic attempt to please diplomatic partners, but a desire to see system change."

President Rodrigo Duterte's said earlier that the country would not honor the pact on reduced carbon emissions. 

While he did not specify which international agreement the Philippines would not honor, the country participated in the United Nations' Conference of Parties in December last year, during which the Paris Agreement was initially drafted and ratified by 196 countries.

The agreement outlined the framework for dealing with greenhouse gas emissions.

As its contribution, the Philippines pledged, through its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions up to 70 percent by 2030.

In April this year, then Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Ramon Paje signed signed the Paris agreement for the Philippines.

Simplistic

Duterte however reasoned that he would not honor the agreement as he was not the one who signed it.

"Kalokohan 'yan. So that is how very competitive and that is how very constricted our lives [are] now. It's being controlled by the world. It's being imposed upon us by the industrialized countries," he said when he met the Philippine delegation to the summer Olympics in  Malacañang.

"They think that they can dictate what the destiny of the rest of the nation. Sila 'yan," he added.

Saño said he "understand[s] where the sentiment is coming from," but pointed out that the Climate Convention enshrines "the principle of common but differentiated responsibility."

"It is also simplistic to just view the Paris agreement from the context of whether it should be honored or not, because in all the glorification of the agreement, it does not really mean much if rich countries evade real ambitious action," he said.

He said the Philippines should look beyond the use of fossil fuels and "conduct a thorough social and economic analysis of the pledges" it submitted to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, then "chart a robust sustainable development pathway."

"Climate-disrupting fossil fuels are part of the current short-sighted economic system. We should end our dependence on them. It has been proven that fossil fuels cannot address our development aspirations," he said.

Saño remembered that when the governments of the world were scrambling in the dying days of the COP21 climate summit in Paris to forge a new climate agreement, Typhoon Melor (Nonoy) was approaching the Philippines uncharacteristically a few days before Christmas.

"As the politicians continued to celebrate the agreement, the out?of?season storm left many communities in shambles. This leads us to reflect on how words on a piece of paper crafted in diplomacy matter little to real people on the ground confronting climate impacts." — Rose-An Jessica Dioquino/DVM, GMA News