RP’s vulnerability to climate change

THIS IS a reaction to the news item titled “Pay for climate change, RP to urge rich nations.” (Inquirer, 11/06/09).

The report stated that “Secretary Heherson Alvarez, presidential adviser on global warming and climate change, has been tasked by President Macapagal-Arroyo to lead the delegation from the Philippines to the climate change summit in Copenhagen in December” and that Senator Loren Legarda, representing the Senate “would push for a debt-for-climate change adaptation fund in Copenhagen for purposes of rehabilitation and reconstruction of disaster victims, reforestation and implementation of environmental law.”

In reaction to the report, I would like to elaborate. In terms of per unit of land area, South Korea, Japan, China, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam are emitting carbon dioxide more than the Philippines (Korea, 24.3x, Japan, 18.4x; China, 3.3x; Malaysia, 3.2x; Thailand, 2.9x; and Vietnam, 2x). All together, their total carbon dioxide emission represents 31 percent of that of the world. The emitted carbon gas is absorbed by the atmosphere of each country. But since the emission spreads evenly to the atmosphere of neighboring countries, then to the region’s and the inter-regions’ and finally the globe’s, each country regardless of the amount of carbon it emits ends up with the same concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, which is now at the critical level such that it threatens a disastrous climate change. But since these countries have higher accelerated economic growth rate and much lower population-poverty incidence than the Philippines, they are better equipped in adapting to climate change while the latter is the most vulnerable.

The Philippines is the only country, at least in Asia, that has a law on climate change. And it has 39 Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM) projects registered with the United Nations in line with the Kyoto Protocol; it has many environmental projects; and it has good environment practices by businesses. All these things have earned the Philippines the title of “the most environment-friendly,” from the 2009 Grant Thorton International Business Report.

Ironically, while the Philippines is the most environment-friendly, it is the most vulnerable to climate change. This scenario gives Secretary Alvarez and Senator Legarda, as well as the NGOs campaigning for good governance, the moral high ground in asking for assistance and support from rich and neighboring countries for their advocacy to enable the country to effectively adapt to climate change. –Philippine Daily Inquirer

—EDMUNDO ENDEREZ,

edenderez@yahoo.com