DILG to join confabs on climate change

CEBU - Agencies under the Department of Interior and Local Government, including the police, will join series of consultations set to address problems on climate change.

DILG Secretary Ronaldo Puno recently ordered the immediate convening of various local government leagues and representatives from law enforcement to draw up local actions that will address global warming in the Philippines.

According to Puno the local actions on climate change will be formulated through a series of conferences that will be conducted at the regional level starting this month until March 2009.

The conferences will tackle the impacts of climate change on people, business and ecosystems; responses to address climate change: energy solution, vehicle solutions, forestry solutions and agricultural solutions, and will come up with templates of legislative and executive actions at the provincial, city and municipal levels.

The DILG secretary called on all provincial governors, vice-governors, city and municipal mayors, city and municipal vice mayors and other city and barangay officials to attend the regional conferences at the place nearest to their official stations.

The schedules for the series of conferences are to be announced through letters of invitation and Public Service Announcements.

Other than DILG, also to attend are officials of the Vice Mayors League of the Philippines, the Provincial Board Members League of the Philippines, the Philippine Councilors League, the Lady Local legislators League of the Philippines and the League of Local Planning and Development Coordinators of the Philippines.

The major contributors to global warming are intense use of coal and fossil fuels which emits carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

CO2 is a harmful gas that depletes the ozone layer which in turn lets harmful rays of the sun reached the surface of the planet.

This increases the temperature of the Earth, melts the ice in the polar caps and then causes certain changes in human and natural conditions. — Ferliza C. Contratista/BRP (THE FREEMAN)