PH welcomes historic Paris Agreement – Palace

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines welcomes the Paris Agreement and pledges to fulfill its intended nationally determined contribution (INDC), committing to reduce greenhouse emissions conditionally by 70% by 2030.

Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio “Sonny” Coloma Jr said on dzRB Sunday, December 13, this pledge is “in solidarity with other nations that will provide support in terms of finance, technology and capacity building.”

He added that the Philippine government will “continually engage our people in the spirit of ‘bayanihan’ to work together in building disaster-resilient communities.”

The Paris Agreement was adopted on December 12, 2015 by negotiators from 195 parties. The historic global climate pact aims to keep global temperature rise to below 2°C and to help avert a planet-wide catastrophe.

The Philippine delegation led by Climate Change Commissioner Emmanuel de Guzman welcomed the accord and said the Paris Agreement is a “significant stride forward.” During the plenary session where countries adopted the pact, De Guzman said that while the accord may not be as perfect, it is essentially an acceptable one.

“We can build on it and make it better over time. We must now focus on its implementation and on the compliance procedures and will engage in the process,” he said.

At the start of COP21, President Benigno Aquino III called on nations to act and reach an agreement that “allows all voices to be heard and take into consideration the particular situations of all the nations that have taken this historic step to end decades of deadlock and take decisive climate change action,” Coloma said in his opening statement.

Among the major points of the Paris accord are the following:

• global temperature goal of 1.5°C
• inclusion of human rights as bedrock principle
• emphasis on ecosystem integrity
• commitment of support in finance, technology and capacity building for all adaptation and mitigation efforts
• inclusion of a loss and damage article that would ensure the recovery, restoration and resilience of communities, livelihoods and ecosystems. 

– Rappler.com