MANILA, Philippines — The Climate Change Commission (CCC) has expressed support to the call of President Duterte for member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to play an active and leadership role in addressing climate change and seeking climate justice.
“Cooperation is key. We highly support the President’s call upon ASEAN countries to join forces in calling out industrialized nations to counteract the threat of climate change,” said Climate Secretary Emmanuel de Guzman in a statement on Friday.
“We need to send a very clear signal to the international community that ASEAN leaders are taking decisive climate action,” he added.
During the recent ASEAN Summit in Thailand, Duterte urged member countries to hold developed countries accountable for climate change.
He also called fellow Southeast Asian nations to adapt and build resilience by advancing initiatives that care for the people and the environment.
De Guzman said that the contribution of countries to climate change, and their capacities to survive its consequences, varies enormously.
With innovation of their more advanced mechanisms, he said developed nations tend to emit more carbon footprints than those of the developing ones.
Meanwhile, with little to no resources, vulnerable and developing countries will find it unviable, if not difficult, to catch up from these fast-progressing nations.
The climate body said this shows the need for developed countries to provide technologies and investments, in the form of climate finance, to developing countries as part of their mitigation efforts.
“We maintain that those with historical responsibility must shoulder the far greater burden of acting faster, sooner, and with far bigger accountability of keeping the long-term temperature goals to no higher than 1.5 degrees Celsius,” De Guzman said.
“Otherwise, it’s all hypocrisy from rich countries that have benefited the most from the burning of fossil fuels which heightened climate change,” he added. – With Helen Flores