LOOKBACK: The last PH president at a climate conference

PARIS—Six years ago, at the climate talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, the Philippines was already the face of climate vulnerability. When President Gloria Arroyo addressed the Conference of Parties under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the country was still reeling from the onslaught of typhoons Ketsana (“Ondoy”) and Parma (“Pepeng”). Here, before President Aquino takes his turn to speak and to chair the meeting of the Climate Vulnerability Forum, is a look back at Arroyo’s remarks, and the Philippines’ position.

READ: ‘COP21: Un succès est-il possible?’

GMA: ‘We cannot leave Copenhagen without a deal’

By John Nery

COPENHAGEN—President Macapagal-Arroyo added her voice Thursday to the chorus calling on world leaders to reach a substantive and politically binding deal at the UN climate talks. The 85th head of government to address the Conference of Parties, as the UN forum is called, President Arroyo drew a picture of the Philippines as one of the countries most vulnerable to the adverse impact of climate change, and said: “We cannot afford to leave Copenhagen without a deal.”

The turbulent talks, possibly the most complex international negotiation in history, have one last day to reach a successful conclusion (unless the heads of government decide to extend the process, designed to produce a successor agreement to the landmark Kyoto Protocol, for a day or two).

The President, who spoke at about 5 p.m. (12 midnight, Manila time), touched on the two basic components of a successful deal, emission reduction and climate financing: “For an equitable outcome, developed countries need to lead in reducing emissions. A robust financial mechanism must also be established to meet the costs of adaptation for developing countries and for effective development and transfer of technologies.”

It is worth noting, however, that she did not assert the original Philippine position of “deep and early cuts” in emissions, a position that had once placed the country at the forefront of developing economies involved in the negotiations and which her own presidential adviser on climate change, the leader of the Philippine delegation, former senator Heherson Alvarez, had reiterated in the forum only a few days ago.

The President also made special mention of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s mid-Thursday announcement that the United States was ready to support a $100-billion-a-year climate fund for developing countries by 2020 —- an announcement that served to lift the up-again, down-again negotiations. “It is essential that this augmentation of global funds should include the replenishment of existing global grant facilities,” she said, referring to the often articulated need of the developing countries for outright aid, instead of concessional loans.

The text of the President’s speech, entitled “Copenhagen National Statement,” follows:

The Philippines looks upon these negotiations in Copenhagen with a critical sense of urgency. The average world per capita CO2 equivalent emission [of] 6 tons must be brought down to 3 tons to stabilize at 450 parts per million in 2050. The Philippines is already doing better than that. Our emission is only 1.6 tons per capita, and we are committed to further deviate from our business-as-usual emissions growth path.

Yet, though our country has a good carbon footprint, we are disproportionately vulnerable to the devastation of Mother Nature, accelerated by the mistreatment of the fragile environment by human beings all over the world. This is due in large part to the fact that we are an archipelago of over 7,000 islands, with the majority of our people living in low-lying areas that are prone to climate hazards.

The UN reports that the Philippines is one of the top 12 countries at the greatest risk from climate change. We top the list of nations most in danger of facing more frequent and more intense storms as the impact of climate change intensifies.

Tropical storms of historic scale have inflicted devastation and a tragic loss of lives upon our country. Two recent typhoons cost our people $4 billion or 2.7 percent of our GDP. Our major food regions lost 8-10 percent of their GDP because over 600,000 hectares of farmland were destroyed, while the industrial areas lost 6-8 percent. These same typhoons affected more than 9 million people and killed more than 900. Over 200,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. Our nation was already struggling against the headwinds of the global economic storm when we were forced to confront these natural disasters.

Thank God that we pulled together as a nation. We have begun to rebuild the affected areas of our country. We thank our international friends and development partners who assisted us in our moment of need over the past few months.

We come to Copenhagen in partnership with other nations to find a way to meet the harsh impacts of climate change and avert a global climate crisis. It is time to harmonize economic development with environmental protection in a new global order where they are not mutually exclusive, but synonymous. It is time all countries of the world owned up to our collective responsibilities. Solving this problem will certainly take years, but we need to start the process now.

We cannot afford to leave Copenhagen without a deal, based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. For an equitable outcome, developed countries need to lead in reducing emissions. A robust financial mechanism must also be established to meet the costs of adaptation for developing countries and for effective development and transfer of technologies.

We applaud Secretary Clinton’s ground-breaking announcement that the United States is “prepared to work with other countries toward a goal of jointly mobilizing $100 billion a year by 2020 to address the climate change needs of developing countries.” It is essential that this augmentation of global funds should include the replenishment of existing global grant facilities.

Humans started the problem of climate change. Humans can certainly solve it.

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