Enrile backs Debt for Climate Change Adaptation Swap

MANILA, Philippines – Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile supported yesterday the Debt for Climate Change Adaptation Swap, in which portions of the country’s payments for foreign debts will be used instead for reconstruction and climate adaptation measures.

Enrile pushed for the debt swap agreement amid statements from developed countries at the Copenhagen climate change meet that financial help to countries such as the Philippines might be delayed.

If developed countries have no immediate financial help available, Enrile said “they should at least cancel out our debts, so that we could use that money to repair damage caused by climate change.”

“Developed nations are the cause of climate change,” Enrile said at the Kapihan ng Senado yesterday.

“They are enjoying the benefits of their economic activities that cause climate change and because of that, they have (caused) the entire humanity to suffer because of their inordinate use of resources that caused the changes in climatic condition in this planet,” the Senate President said.

“It stands to reason and is only just that they should respond to the problems of the innocent victims of their economic activities. They should not delay it,” he added.

Copenhagen meet

In Copenhagen, Sen. Loren Legarda challenged US President Barack Obama to effect drastic cuts in America’s carbon emissions to prove his country’s responsiveness to the threat of climate change.

The United Nations Conference on Climate Change Adaptation held in Copenhagen, Denmark ends today.

The summit hopes to conclude a post-2012 strategy by setting down the outlines of an accord on curbing carbon emissions and crafting a mechanism to provide billions of dollars for poorer countries in the firing line of climate change.

Scientists warn that millions of people face going hungry, losing their homes and access to water within the next decade if nothing is done to check greenhouse gas emissions.

But nine days of official and informal negotiations have failed to produce a breakthrough on any of the key issues.

Legarda lamented that a bill that would set into motion America’s response to global warming remains pending before the US Senate.

“President Obama must prove his leadership and his avowed desire for his country to be involved in the global initiative on climate change. He must act to get the bill passed into law,” she said.

Obama has offered to cut US carbon emissions by 17 percent by 2020 over a 2005 benchmark, a figure that aligns with legislation put before the US Congress.

It amounts to a reduction of around four percent compared with the more widely used reference year of 1990. The European Union has pledged to cut emissions by 20 percent on 1990 levels by 2020.

Citing scientific studies, Legarda said the United States and China contribute a whopping 40 percent of air pollutants in the world. – Christina Mendez, Philippine Star