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RP SUPPORTS CALLS FOR 50% CUT IN GREENHOUSE EMISSIONS
TJ Burgonio
Philippine Daily Inquirer
December 10, 2007
MANILA, Philippines -- The Philippines would support calls for a 50-percent reduction in the levels of greenhouse gas emissions by developed countries at the climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia, top government officials said on Monday.
Environment Secretary Lito Atienza and Philippine Mining Development Corp. chair Heherson Alvarez said they would enlist the support of small island-nations in the Asia-Pacific region to persuade developed nations to commit to this goal during negotiations this week.
Atienza and Alvarez, who both chair the Advisory Council on Climate Change Mitigation, Adaptation and Communication, led the Philippine delegation to the UN Framework Conference on Climate Change in Bali.
The two officials pointed out that small island-nations were most vulnerable to global warming, but lacked funding to put up mitigation and adaptation measures.
“We must call on industrialized nations to take a leadership role in Bali to ensure that the world’s top 26 developed countries would welcome the 50-percent cut as a giant leap way beyond their five-percent reduction commitments in the 1998 Kyoto Protocol,” Atienza and Alvarez said in a statement.
While industrialized countries are responsible for 70 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, small island-nations and developing countries are expected to bear the brunt of adverse weather conditions caused by global warming.
According to Alvarez, the Philippines is vulnerable to a rise in sea level and climate change, including the impending increase in temperature by two degrees Celsius by 2080 if carbon emissions are not controlled.
“Half of our country’s 1,610 municipalities are near the coastline. A one-meter increase in sea level could put 64 of our 81 provinces, or 80 percent, in harm’s way by submerging 700 million square meters of our total land area in water,” he said.
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