GMA urged to “look before you leap”

CSO Working Group on Climate Change and Development

Ateneo School of Government (ASoG), AR Now, AlyansaTigil Mina (ATM), ALTEResearch, Center for Community Journalism and Development(CCJD), Center for Environmental Concerns (CEC), Center for Empowerment andResource Development (CERD), Christian Aid, Coastal Core Inc., ConservationInternational, DRR-Net, Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration(ETC Group), Ecological Society of the Philippines (ESP), Freedom from DebtCoalition (FDC), Foundation for the Philippine Environment (FPE), GAIAInternational, Greenpeace International, Haribon Foundation, Health CareWithout Harm (HCWH), IDEALS, Jubilee South, Legal Rights & NaturalResources Center (LRC), Marinduque Council for Environmental Concerns (MACEC), MiriamPEACE,  NGO Forum on the ADB, NGOsfor Fisheries Reform (NFR), Non-Timber Forest Products-Exchange Program(NTFP-EP), ODA Watch, Oxfam, Panay Rural Development Center, Inc. (PRDCI), PartidoKalikasan, Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM), ResponsibleIlonggos for Sustainable Energy (RISE), Rice Watch & Action Network (RWAN),SARILAYA, SEARICE, Soljuxpax, Tambuyog Development Center, TEBTEBBA, ThirdWorld Network (TWN), World March of Women, World Wildlife Fund (WWF)

For release

25 January 2010

GMA urged to “lookbefore you leap” 

The CSOWorking Group on Climate Change and Development, a coalition of over 30organizations working on climate change-related issues, calls on PresidentGloria Macapagal- Arroyo to take a long and careful look at the CopenhagenAccord and firmly resist being rushed into committing the Philippines to thehighly controversial and widely-criticized document, without a thorough study anddeliberations of its implications on our climate survival and its consequenceson our economic development.

The groupalso calls on the new Climate Change Commission to initiate serious discussionsamong different sectors on the political, economic, and environmentalramifications of the Accord, and urges presidential candidates to speak theirminds on this important issue that will have long-term effects on the lives ofthe Filipino people. 

“Anambiguous, non-legally binding deal forged by only 26 nations led by PresidentBarack Obama and orchestrated by Danish Premier Rasmussen can not be asubstitute for the legally-binding Kyoto Protocol which was crafted and agreedby all Parties under a transparent process, and which binds developed countriesto cut their GHG emissions and pay for their historical culpability inpolluting the atmospheric space,” says Chito Tionko of the CSO WG.

 “It is the US, the EU and otherdeveloped countries that should change their production and consumptionpatterns and cut their greenhouse gas emissions drastically now in order forthe earth to have a chance to recover”, Tionko asserts.

Accordingto CSO WG Coordinator Rowena Bolinas, the money the Accord promises to deliverin the amount of US$30 billion dollars between now and 2012 and  US$100 billion by 2020, is largelyuncertain and the Accord is devoid of specifics as to its source, provision andgovernance.

“The totalamount of the non-binding pledges made so far falls short by 2 billion peryear,” Bolinas cites, adding that “most of Japan’s funding is in the form ofloans, while much of the  EU money has simply been re-pledged and littleis committed over and above the 0.7 percent of GNP aid target promised since1972. The funds promised by the US, on the other hand, is subject tocongressional approval which is highly uncertain in view of the current debateamong US legislators. “In our view, this is an alarming indication of the typeof financial support poor nations will be receiving as payment of the climatedebt of developed countries—redirected development aid, more loans earmarkedfor private sector investment, and not the much needed adaptation funds forcommunities suffering the brunt of climate change impacts.”

Of theUS$380 million pledges President Arroyo got as a result of attending theclimate talks in Copenhagen, US$250 million of this is concessional  loanfrom the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) administered by the World Bank and othermulti-lateral financing agencies, as reported by Philippine Star on December20, 2009. 

Shirley Bolaños, a community development worker based inSorsogon,   asks the Presidentand other political leaders “not to be swayed by tactics employed by developedcountries to undermine the UNFCCC process, particularly the Kyoto Protocol.”Bolaños, who attended the Bangkok and Copenhagen talks, expressed deepdisappointment over the outcome which is the Copenhagen Accord. “It is notfair, not ambitious and not binding.” she stresses, “and will result in anunjust burden-sharing arrangement that will significantly hamper our chances ofattaining development “.

The CSO WG urges the President through theClimate Change Commission to immediately conduct broad consultation withvarious sectors on the implications of translating into concrete actions, theearlier commitments made by the Philippine delegation on emission reductiontarget, namely 5% annually from 1990 level by 2012 and the 20% deviation fromBAU.

The CSO WG concludes, “If the President is intent on leavinga firm legacy in protecting the long-term interests of the country, it is bestthat she adopt a cautious attitude towards associating the Philippines with theAccord,  and she should strongly insist onreturning the focus on working with the  other Parties to the UNFCCC to complete the pendingnegotiations in the AWG-LCA and the AWG-KP in order that something concrete maybe ready for adoption by the time the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCCmeets again in Mexico this December 2010.”

-end-

Reference:

Rowena F. Bolinas

Coordinator

wbolinas@gmail.com/  +639276965364

Unit 333 Eagle Court Condominium,Matalino St., Central, Quezon City