APEC urged to highlight climate change mitigation

MANILA, Philippines – Member-economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum must be able to highlight climate change mitigation in their respective development plans, as officials stressed that any project not climate resilient is no longer considered development.

Haoliang Xu, United Nations Development Program regional director for Asia and the Pacific, cited as examples the destruction to lives and properties as a result of the Sendai earthquake in Japan and Super Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines.

“Natural disasters can cause significant damage to the achievements that were accumulated over decades, one disaster can wipe out the achievements of decades of development,” said Xu, who was among the guest panelists at a press briefing in Malacañang yesterday.

Assistant Secretary Joyceline Goco, Climate Change Commission deputy executive director, said the APEC members should highlight climate change in their development plans because if these will not lead to a resilient people and calamity-resilient infrastructure, this could no longer be called development.

Delegates to the 9th Senior Disaster Management Officials’ Forum in September had earlier agreed that “the prevailing conditions all over the world would demand that climate change not only be considered a special concern but a significant development that must be dealt with utmost priority.”

In yesterday’s briefing, Xu cited the Sendai Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, held in Japan this year, where it was “very clearly stated that if it is not climate resilient, if it is not resilient development, it is not development.”

He pointed out that the Yolanda experience led the Philippine government to prepare for incoming typhoons and that these preparations have led to significant decreases in the number of casualties.

“So, you know, it shows very clearly that if you invest in building resilience through different means, you can reduce the loss and damage to lives and to the economy and to people’s properties,” Xu said.

“And I think, when you recognize that governments – and the Philippines is a good example – have made a lot of progress over the last few years in terms of economic growth and poverty reduction. But, still, a large segment of the population in different countries live just above the poverty line. So, they are still very vulnerable to shocks, (which) can be man-made (or) natural disasters. If we don’t have sufficient effort to build resilient, robust support systems – such as social protection, employment opportunities – a shock can bring them back to (living) below the poverty line,” Xu added.

Meanwhile, more than 20,000 people will join the March for Climate Justice later this month to call for strong commitments from world leaders ahead of the international climate talks in Paris on Nov. 30.

“This is a fight for our survival and future. Either we change the system and seek climate justice or face our death,” said Gerry Arances of the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ).

The PMCJ cited recent reports from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that the pledges from over 140 countries are still not enough to achieve the target of limiting global warming to at least two degrees Celsius.

UNFCCC executive director Christiana Figueres said the climate action plans submitted have the capacity of limiting warming to around 2.7 degrees Celsius by 2100.

Arances said a world warmer by three or four degrees means death for millions of people, including Filipinos, as it could result in rising sea levels and more destructive natural disasters.

Lidy Nacpil, coordinator of the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development and the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice, noted that the pledges of wealthy governments are far below their fair share.

“They have also pledged very little in terms of finance for developing countries like the Philippines, contrary to their obligations enshrined in the climate convention,” Nacpil added.

Anna Abad of Greenpeace Philippines stressed that the fuel fossil industry should also be held accountable for climate change.

“We have to remind these big polluters that their carbon emissions are affecting vulnerable countries like the Philippines,” she said.

Religious groups will also join the march, to be held on Nov. 28 at the Quezon Memorial Circle. Earlier Pope Francis issued an encyclical calling for unified action against the destruction of the planet.

Threat to public health

Sen. Loren Legarda warned yesterday about the threat of climate change to public  health unless addressed by the government as many stakeholders vowed to help build resilient communities nationwide.

“Climate change is not an overnight problem, and it has taken super typhoons and tsunamis, sinking islands, arid, unusable land and staggering numbers of lives displaced and perished to visualize what scientists and environmental activists have been warning us for decades – that among other effects, climate change will be the biggest global health threat of the 21st century,” Legarda said.

In her opening remarks during “The Necessary Alternatives: Balancing Energy, Health and the Climate Challenge Forum” at the Senate, Legarda also challenged the government as “it faces conundrums that include the spreading of deadly diseases and viruses, decrease in well-being of citizens and medical relief needed with each catastrophe.”

The British embassy Manila and Health Care Without Harm-Asia also sponsored the forum. – With Delon Porcalla, Janvic Mateo, Christina Mendez