JDV proposes strategy vs climate change

DAGUPAN CITY , Philippines  – Pangasinan fourth district Rep. Jose de Venecia Jr. is asking foreign creditor states to consider a debt swap formula for 100 highly indebted nations wherein as much as 50 percent of the yearly debt service payments they receive will be converted to investor equity in anti-climate change projects that will help them earn carbon credits.

De Venecia has submitted a proposal to United Kingdom Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who he referred to as the “No. 1 champion in climate change.” 

In his letter dated last Oct. 21, De Venecia said one of the challenges in the United Nations-led climate change negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark in December, is the unwillingness of newly industrializing countries (NICs) to accept internationally binding emission reduction targets without financial or technical compensation to cover the cost of achieving these targets. Historically, NICs have much lower greenhouse emissions per capita than industrialized countries.

“The extent to which the industrialized powers are prepared to support the developing countries in reducing their carbon emissions could make or break the Copenhagen Conference,” De Venencia said in the letter. 

He proposed that a debt swap be made through investments in reforestation, water conservation, alternative energy, mass housing, education, health, and social infrastructure.

He said reforestation projects could earn creditor states carbon credits under the Kyoto Protocol.

De Venecia said investors stand to profit from reforestation through a regular cycle of timber sales like the successful evergreen timber plantations and industries in New Zealand and Canada.