Deep, early cuts in greenhouse gas emissions sought

BANGKOK, Thailand — The Philippine delegation to the global climate change summit here led by Presidential Adviser on Global Warming and Climate Change Heherson Alvarez yesterday pressed developed countries to see eye to eye with developing countries and make deep and early cuts in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

This as climate negotiations struck a hurdle on issues including financial mechanisms to combat climate change and new emission reduction targets with the United States reportedly appearing to be unable to commit at this time with its climate change bill stalled in Congress, according to Alvarez.

Alvarez, the designated chief negotiator of the Philippines in the climate talks, also made the hard call as the Philippines comes to terms with the devastation of tropical storm “Ondoy” and typhoon “Pepeng” as well as what he describes as “great record flooding” which he certainly attributed to global warming and climate change.

“What has happened to the Philippines — typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng, which brought super abnormal volume of rainfall; and the great record flooding —highlights the urgency of progress in climate talks here,” Alvarez said.

“The recent disastrous events in the Philippines are clearly a manifestation of the consequences of global inaction in addressing the immediate impacts of creeping climate change. Annex I countries must act now with urgency to moderate these storms and spare the whole world from the impoverishing and devastating impacts of climate change, especially to low-lying archipelagic island-nations like the Philippines,” he also said.

Around 190 nations have been meeting here since last week under the sponsorship of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). 

Dubbed as the Bangkok Climate Change Talks 2009, it is the second to the last negotiations to craft a new climate change treaty that will replace the Kyoto Protocol before world leaders gather in December in Copenhagen to put it to a vote. The new treaty is perceived to contain individual country emission targets.

But UN climate chief Yvo de Boer earlier said that the debate over financial mechanisms to fight climate change might not be resolved at the Bangkok Climate Change Talks, even as progress on many other issues has been made.

De Boer said delegates to the conference had largely agreed on the issues of technology transfer and capacity building to help developing countries adapt to climate change and rein in GHG emissions.

Also, around 4,000 climate negotiators had made progress in trimming the 180-page negotiations text of the new accord on climate.

“In the wake of the worst flooding in the history of the capital region of Metro Manila, I encourage fellow delegates to work on achieving real and significant progress in the talks here as I reiterate my appeal for developed country financing for adaptation in developing countries,” said Alvarez, a former senator and environment secretary.

“With a renewed sense of urgency and determination, we are pushing for developed country parties to ensure support and financing for adaptation in developing countries consistent with our position for a concrete global adaptation financing package devoted for risk insurance and climate proofing vulnerable economies,” Alvarez also stressed.

According to Alvarez, the recent tropical storms that hit the Philippines “with an unparalleled ferocity” caused the “worst flooding” experienced by the country since the 1960s.

He believes that such extreme weather event instantly brought the Philippines to “a state of serious calamity.”

He likewise believes that even if Metro Manila had the appropriate international support, good drainage systems, and forest cover, among others, the metropolis would still be inundated because the rainfall was already “super abnormal” as it was mainly caused by climate change.

Weather experts had reported that Ondoy (international code name Ketsana), which hit Central and Southern Luzon, as well as Metro Manila which endured the brunt of the storm, dumped 334 millimeters of rain in the first six hours, the highest ever-recorded rainfall in the metropolis. The previous record was 341 millimeters over a 24 hour period 42 years ago.

Weather experts also said that the 334-millimeter volume of rainfall in six hours is the average month’s worth of rain across 25 of the country’s provinces.

Reports said Ondoy submerged up to 80 percent of the city, and covered areas that never experienced flooding before, stranding people on rooftops and bringing death and misery to rich and poor alike.

Damage to property caused by Ondoy was initially estimated to reach around $49 million.

“As such, we are here in Bangkok not only in full negotiating-mode, but in full survival mode. We come to these climate change negotiations with a very clear intention of positioning ourselves not for bargaining, but for survival,” Alvarez pointed out.

The Philippines previously submitted interventions that call for deep and early cuts of emissions by industrialized countries of more than 30 percent from 2013 to 2017; more than 50 percent from 2018 to 2022; and at least 95 percent by 2050, all from 1990 levels.

Alvarez said the Philippines’ submission or proposal was “in accordance to the science suggested by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).”