Catastrophic

If Glasgow fails, everything fails.

Mankind has reached the ledge. If concerted global action is not undertaken, we basically fall off the cliff. We step back or we fall forward.

The State of the Climate report, prepared by the World Meteorological Organization, emphasized that the world is “changing before our eyes.” The 20-year temperature average exceeds 1 degree centigrade above pre-industrial levels.

A degree centigrade might not seem much. But it has caused severe weather events and rising sea levels that put much of humanity under great risk.

In Africa’s three highest peaks, the snowcaps are quickly melting. This will soon express in rivers drying up and long droughts devastating the continent’s agriculture.

In Siberia, the permafrost is melting. This has led to the discovery of numerous fossils trapped in ice for tens of thousands of years. It also means carbon dioxide, billions of tons of it, trapped under the permafrost will be released into the atmosphere, further aggravating the warming process.

In Greenland, we watched with awe as glaciers break and ice melts. The once frozen island could become a large vineyard soon.

In the Antarctic, huge blocks of ice are breaking off due to warming currents, threatening to raise sea levels dramatically. Off Australia, the Great Barrier Reef is endangered. Rising sea temperatures caused the corals to bleach and eventually die. The loss of coral reefs will translate into lower fish stock on which most countries rely for food.

We know all these, of course. The strongest storm ever to make landfall hit the Central Philippines a few years ago. We have not fully recovered from the devastation it caused. Lying squarely on the typhoon belt, our archipelago is more vulnerable to severe weather events such as Yolanda.

Uneven

As in most calamities, climate change will impact the poor most. The developing nations will suffer most from global warming caused principally by the industrial economies.

The Philippines contributes only 0.3 percent of global greenhouse gases. Yet we are the 4th most vulnerable country to the effects of global warming.

Most of our population is settled along our coastline. They are vulnerable to rising sea levels and severe storms. Our agriculture is vulnerable to prolonged droughts. Thinning fish stocks threaten our fisheries.

Countries who are signatories to the Paris Agreement of Climate Change were asked to submit their nationally determined carbon reduction goals for the next decade. The Philippines submitted a bold target of 75 percent carbon reduction by 2030.

Achieving that goal requires a comprehensive national strategy towards building a green economy. At the COP26 meeting now going on at Glasgow, Scotland, the Philippines is sharing its Sustainable Finance Roadmap with other emerging economies. It is a model for mobilizing the immense powers of the finance sector towards building a sustainable economy with the smallest possible carbon footprint.

Also to be announced at Glasgow is the Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM) involving a partnership between the Philippines, Indonesia and the Asian Development Bank.  The ETC offers a financial model for shifting the two countries from reliance on coal-fired energy sources. This involves a plan to accelerate the retirement of existing coal plants and increase investments in renewable power sources.

Last month, the Climate Change Commission reconstituted its Panel of Technical Experts to include scientists involved in practical projects on the ground intended to mitigate the effects of climate change and the introduction of new processes that add little to greenhouse gas emissions. This signals the country’s shift from highly theoretical discussions on climate change to practical mitigation projects at the level of our communities.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, chair of the Climate Change Commission, declared that the period of debate is over. It is now time to undertake concrete measures aimed at mitigation. He is confident the 75 percent reduction in our greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 is doable.

In previous COP meetings, the industrial economies that contribute the most greenhouse gas emissions (and that commit the least in terms of carbon reduction) promised to support the emerging economies in their energy transition to the tune of $100 billion. Climate finance in the framework of the Paris Agreement is key to the global effort to keep global warming within 1.5 degrees. Failure to do so will be catastrophic for all.

The Philippine delegation to COP26 is determined to put climate justice at the top of the agenda. Climate justice involves not only demanding the industrial economies impose tougher reduction targets but also to deliver on the climate financing they promised.

Without climate justice, the global effort will fail. The planet cannot be saved.

Discourse

Although climate change poses an existential threat to the only planet we have, the matter does not figure in the current electoral discourse. No presidential candidate has introduced the topic for public discussion nor offered their plan for the mitigation that urgently needs to be done.

Maybe the subject is not “sexy” enough. It may not be a topic that sways votes from one candidate to the other.

Or, it may be too complex, demanding too much from ordinary citizens. It does require an intensive discussion into our energy profile, the nitty-gritty of our food supply and the inconvenient lifestyle changes we have to adopt.

Also, it may require proposing a painful carbon tax, especially on the consumption of fossil fuels. Our voters will have none of that. They would, in fact, prefer suspension of excise taxes on fuel – a topic the candidates pander to.

But climate change is a more comprehensive challenge facing our people than the pandemic.