Hollande: Phl must be face, voice of climate change crusade

MANILA, Philippines - Regularly devastated by killer typhoons, the Philippines can be “the face and voice” of developing countries in confronting climate change, French President Francois Hollande said yesterday.

“In the eyes of the world, Manila is a symbol of suffering and hope,” Hollande said on the second day of his state visit to the Philippines, the very first for a French head of state.

Yesterday he saw for himself the progress of rehabilitation and recovery efforts in Guiuan, Eastern Samar, where Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) first made landfall in November 2013. The area was one of the most devastated.Late last year, the province was again battered by Typhoon Ruby.

“Nevertheless there is hope here in Manila,” Hollande said Thursday night during the launch of the Manila Call to Action on Climate Change, expressing admiration for the hopeful and resilient characteristic of Filipinos in the face of tragedies.

He said natural disasters brought about by climate change continue to threaten the world, especially vulnerable countries like the Philippines.

The Philippines endures about 20 major storms or typhoons every year but meteorologists say they are getting stronger and more unpredictable because of climate change.

In his speech at the Guiuan Elementary School, Hollande said, “I came here to make an appeal… That we have to do this, act together, (set) things right and campaign against climate change.”?The French president observed that hundreds of thousands of typhoon survivors in coastal areas in Eastern Samar continue to live in danger zones.

“Although many of their livelihoods and properties were destroyed… residents have shown resilience and remain empowered to restore their self-sufficiency,” he said.

Hollande said his trip to Guiuan aims to highlight climate change, an issue doubly important to France, as it would host the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC)  in December.

Before leaving Guiuan, Hollande had a brief interaction with local officials and residents. He vowed to extend support but didn’t elaborate.

He was expected to announce 1.5 million euros ($1.7 million) in aid for the French non-government organization ACTED (Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development) to help local storm-vulnerable communities.

‘Strong voice’

The French president had said he heard the “voice” of President Aquino when he spoke at the UN Climate Change summit in New York in September last year, where the Philippines rallied all nations to do their part in addressing the challenge affecting billions of lives due to extreme weather events.

“We need other voices as well,” Hollande said, along with a binding agreement that would contain the commitments of world leaders and their countries to combat climate change.

“We need the Philippines. We need countries which not only were the victims of disasters, but also were able to invent policies and to express a number of recommendations that will be examples for the Paris conference… because we will not succeed unless the people themselves mobilize themselves. Of course, there are many other topics, terrorism, wars, economic difficulties, poverty, and we could very well consider that climate, the environment can wait once again,” Hollande said.

“But, no, because should we postpone the deadline, should we wait until the economy recovers, the peace is back everywhere in the world, we would never ever sign an agreement,” he said.

Aquino, for his part, said the Philippines would continue to champion causes related to global climate change along with countries like France as developed and developing countries continue to debate on compensation, among other issues, to protect vulnerable countries from the devastating effects of the problem.

“The question of ‘will the Philippines take the lead in championing all of these adaptations to global climate change,’ we believe in consensus. We believe that it is already difficult to get everybody to change their lifestyles to make a significant contribution to the necessary changes that will lead to a slowing down of this climate change, if not the eradication of the problem,” Aquino said in a joint press conference with Hollande on Thursday.

“Having said that, therefore, the Philippines intends to attend every (forum) and utilize each of these particular fora to voice the sentiments of those who are at the receiving end of global climate change, and we will try to strive for a consensus with every entity so they can contribute the most at the quickest possible time. Perhaps the effort is being enhanced currently because it is not relegated to countries like ours that are just developing, but even first world countries are beginning to see their own weather patterns changing dramatically and for the worse,” Aquino added.

With such perspective, Aquino expressed hope they would be able to build a consensus to push other countries to maximize their contributions in the effort to combat global climate change.

Climate fund

Hollande said France is ready to assist the Philippines in various aspects as they did when natural disasters struck the country. He added that France would provide assistance to the Philippines in terms of technology and renewable energy sources.

He said that French companies and non-government organizations have provided relief and that his country is offering a loan facility amounting to 50 million euros from the French Development Agency (AFD, or Agence Française de Développement) to help vulnerable areas recover from natural disasters and make them more resilient.

Hollande said the AFD – the institution making it possible to extend loans and credits to investment funds with the Philippines and other countries – has been encouraging all of the technological projects that could contribute to the fight against climate change and natural disasters.

“We have created a Green Fund in France, but what is more important… is to create an international Green Climate Fund whose aim will be to get the most resources, not only from states but also from international institutions – the major international institutions, companies – so that these funds can be made available to vulnerable countries like the Philippines, fragile countries, emerging countries, poor countries; otherwise, we would not be able to convince them to join us and to sign the Paris agreement,” the French president said.

“These countries tell us that they are not responsible for climate change, for climate disruption; that it is the developed countries who, for decades and decades, extracted natural resources,” he said.

“Our ambition is, therefore, starting from 2020, to generate $100 billion for the funding of what would be energy transition and the protection of the most vulnerable countries. This is what we hope to bring forward to the Paris conference but this will not prevent Europe and France to take action, and this is what I wanted to indicate by coming to the Philippines,” he said.

Hollande said some of the contentious issues were the reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, as well as the financial contributions to the Green Climate Fund “but I can commit to not giving in.”

“We will not give up on anything until the end and we will make sure that the Paris conference is a moment of hope. We need hope,” he said.

According to Hollande, it has been agreed that if developing countries would not participate and would not be willing to conclude a climate change agreement, then there would be none concluded in the UN summit.

“If the countries, the poorest countries, are not convinced that there will be a fund, an innovative, original fund scheme, which would be made available to them, there would be no agreement in Paris,” he said.

“On this basis, my conclusion is very simple: We should, in Paris, not only ask for agreements – the agreement of each country on its own commitment. We should create a Green Climate Fund… We should include developing countries in the use of this fund,” he said.– Ricky Bautista, Pia Lee-Brago