Philippines one step closer to ratifying Paris treaty
Updated February 2, 2017 – 12:00am
http://www.philstar.com/
MANILA, Philippines — Despite the misgivings of President Duterte over the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change, the Philippines moved one step closer to ratifying the deal after all concerned government agencies signed their concurrence.
De Guzman said Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. signed the last of 33 certificates of concurrence needed before the transmission of the document to the Office of the President.
“This is an important development towards the country’s joining the climate change accord and the early delivery of its benefits to our Filipino people through climate finance, capacity building, technology and knowledge transfer for climate change adaptation and mitigation, as we pursue climate justice,” the commissioner said in a post on Facebook.
Once Duterte signs the Instrument of Accession, this will be transmitted to the Senate for concurrence, the last step in the ratification process.
De Guzman said the CCC meeting was chaired by Duterte as chairman of the commission, and Sen. Loren Legarda, chair of the Senate committee on climate change.
Legarda, principal author of the Climate Change Act, hailed the decision of Duterte to convene the meeting.
“This is a good sign that our President sees the importance of addressing climate change impact as it affects the overall development of the country,” she said.
Legarda pledged to “actively shepherd” the Senate’s concurrence of the ratification.
“The issue of climate justice, which is one of the concerns of the administration, is enshrined in the agreement. If we ratify, we become part of the succeeding meetings about the Paris agreement,” Legarda said.
“It is to our advantage that we are in the talks so we can converge with our fellow vulnerable nations on how we should move forward and compel big greenhouse gas emitters to do their fair share,” the senator added.
The Philippines, despite its support during the negotiations, was not able to immediately ratify the agreement following the change in administration.
Duterte initially said he was not amenable to the deal as it would be unfair for a poor country like the Philippines to be pressured to limit its carbon emissions when it needed to industrialize.
He noted that rich countries like the US and China emitted carbon heavily when they were industrialized, and questioned why developing countries would be sanctioned for it.
Duterte also expressed his concern with the treaty’s lack of sanctions for countries violating carbon emission restrictions.
The agreement mandates countries to volunteer how much they would reduce their carbon emissions in the next decades to stop global warming.
