P-Noy told to ditch coal in UN speech
President Aquino will be one of the world leaders set to speak at the UN Climate Change Summit on Sept. 23, a high level push led by UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon to reach a consensus among nations at the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris on cutting greenhouse gases.
Expectations are high on the president to deliver in clear terms what climate change vulnerable countries want from the global community and at the same time show what it is doing at home.
Aquino leaves today for a five-nation trip to Europe and the United States.
He is set to meet with leaders of Spain, Belgium, France and Germany before proceeding to New York.
“It is long overdue for the Philippine government to walk the talk. The national framework and action plan have been rendered meaningless because of inconsistent policies that favor coal and other fossil fuels,” said lawyer Gloria Ramos of the Philippine Earth Justice Center.
The Philippines’ experience with supertyphoon Yolanda manifested “what the impact of climate change would look like,” Climate Change Commission Secretary Mary Ann Lucille Sering told the Inquirer.
The Philippines is getting “the raw end of the deal” because while it is not a major emitter of greenhouse gases, typhoons in the country are getting more frequent due to climate change, Sering said.
New protocol
The 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Conference failed to come up with commitments from nations to cut their greenhouse gas emissions to a safe level, although it came up with an accord that acknowledged there was a need to keep the global temperature from rising to no more than 2 degrees Celsius.
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