Even as the Philippines is not considered a major emitter of carbon dioxide, the country has committed to reduce by 70 percent its carbon emissions by 2030 as an initial commitment to a worldwide effort to achieve a below 2-degrees Celsius increase in global temperatures.
President Aquino, who chairs the National Climate Change Commission, approved the country’s intended nationally determined contributions (INDC) on Thursday, Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said in a statement.
The country beat the deadline Thursday to transmit the INDC commitment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The INDC identifies the country’s “climate change mitigation and adaptation actions that will be implemented beyond 2020.”
It is the Philippines’ contribution to the climate negotiations, the highlight of which is the UN Climate Change Conference, also known as COP21, to be held in Paris in December.
Lucille Sering, the climate change commission secretary, said that under the Philippines’ INDC, the country has committed to reduce its carbon emissions by 70 percent by 2030.
The reductions will be in the energy, transport, waste, forestry and industry sectors.
Conditional
Sering said the reductions were “conditional,” noting that the country would depend on domestic and international efforts to help it carry out the mitigating measures to keep Philippine carbon emissions from rising.
These include “sufficient financial resources, technology development and transfer, and capacity building” that would be made available to the Philippines after the Paris climate conference.
Projections show that the Philippines could reach 219 million tons of carbon emissions by 2030.
The Philippines is among the 195 countries that are part of the Conference of Parties, an annual gathering of world leaders that aims to address climate change.
The UNFCCC will synthesize the INDCs of the 195 countries into one report that will help chart a “climate-resilient and climate-smart future.”
Last year at the UN Climate Change Summit in New York City, President Aquino emphasized before world leaders how the Philippines has suffered from the effects of climate change, but continued to be resilient and push for efforts to mitigate the effects of global warming.–Nikko Dizon