Duterte: Climate change deals ‘unfair’

President Duterte

President Duterte on Thursday slammed international climate change deals as “favorable” only to rich countries while making poor nations look “foolish.”

“The different nations do not agree with each other regarding climate change. Some nations are just fooling us,” Duterte said at a land reform event in General Santos City, South Cotabato.

In a conference in Tokyo last month, Duterte denigrated conferences on climate change as a “waste of money,” saying these meetings did not achieve anything.

The United Nations’ climate change conferences, or the Conference of the Parties, is an annual gathering of member-countries where the progress and status of climate change deals are discussed.

Paris Agreement

Easily the most significant climate change deal is the Paris Agreement, which limits the carbon emissions of member-countries to certain levels to keep global warming down.

But these deals are “unfair,” the President said, pointing out that rich countries produce more carbon emissions than smaller nations.

“They want to limit our carbon footprints to a certain percentage. Their nations are more advanced and they are rich, so a certain amount of carbon footprints [is] allotted to them. This means we can’t emit more than the allotted amount for us because we have to wait for the ration [that these rich nations would apportion]. And we will never be able to catch up with their progress,” Duterte said.

“The problem is the [rich nations] have more machines and equipment so they emit more carbon than us,” he added.

“[But] with my nation facing the Pacific Ocean, we are the first to be hit by storms. It happens almost every month,” the President said.

No storms

These rich nations do not feel the effects of climate change as much as a poor nation does, Duterte said.

Addressing the more developed countries, the President said:  “You fools, what have you been hit with? There are no storms there in your place. In the higher places, there is snow.”

He added: “[Now] if you go around selling ‘halo-halo,’ we will be suffering with tuberculosis, lung cancer and other cancers of the throat. Because we would be the ones inhaling your excess carbon emissions.”