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Friday, March 17, 2017
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IT IS NOT enough for the Philippine government – and other governments for that matter – to ratify the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. We must continue to rally the community of nations to take urgent climate action.
Although we are not major emitters of global greenhouse gas (GHG), we cannot let our respective economies grow through the ways that caused today’s climate crisis; we cannot let human society live in a world fraught with dangers.
The Philippines, one of the most climate-vulnerable countries, has been affected by extreme weather events caused by the warming climate. Typhoon Ketsana in 2009 ate up 2.7 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product, while some parts the country has yet to fully recover from the damage and effects of the November 2013 super typhoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan).
Moreover, during the dry season, farmers and farming communities suffer from the drought caused by the extended El Niño affecting the Philippines.
In the Agreement, our commitment is to keep global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius and that 1.5 degrees is an aspiration. But the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming limit should not just be an aspiration; we must do everything not to go beyond that, because the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal is a matter of survival. We have already breached the 1 degree Celsius mark and look at what has happened to vulnerable nations like the Philippines.
The 2015 Paris Agreement has been hailed by many as a landmark agreement, but its aspirations will not happen on its own. The dream of a safer world needs the cooperation of all countries, and of every man, woman, and child. If we start today, there is no promise that we will be lucky enough to see the undoing of the damage within our lifetime, but at least, we leave our world with the gift of hope for a better, kinder future.
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