RP proposal to cut carbon emissions gains ground

COPENHAGEN—The Philippine proposal for a “deep and early cut” in global carbon emissions has gained momentum here at the United Nations climate change summit, where some 115 heads of state will gather on Thursday in a bid to seal a crucial legally-binding deal to combat global warming.

Negotiators from 192 nations, including a 12-member team headed by former Sen. Heherson Alvarez who is the presidential adviser on climate change, have started finalizing the main elements of a global pact since last week.

This will culminate in the summit where US President Barack Obama, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and most of European Union’s top leadership are expected to hammer out a climate deal.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her party are due to arrive late Wednesday here at the Danish capital for the landmark summit dubbed COP15 or the 15th Conference of Parties: United Nations Climate Conference ongoing until Dec. 18.

Sen. Loren Legarda arrived on Tuesday to speak before the assembly of world parliamentarians set for Wednesday.

She is here as the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction regional champion for climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction in Asia Pacific, and head of the congressional delegation.

Survival position

In an interview during a break from the negotiations on Monday, Alvarez said the deep and early cut proposal was formally presented by the Philippine panel of negotiators at the climate change conference in Poznan, Poland, early this month.

He explained to this reporter that the Philippines was asking for a cut of 30 to 40 percent of carbon dioxide deposits in the atmosphere, starting from the end of Kyoto deal in 2012 up to 2018, or five years.

Ratified in 1994 in Japan without United States concurrence, the Kyoto protocol seeks significant emission reduction by developed countries by 5.2 percent from 1990 levels by 2012.

But since the ’90s, emissions have increased dramatically.

In 2006 alone, China was the No. 1 emitter with 21.5 percent of global share, followed by the United States, 20.2 percent; Russia, 5.5 percent; India, 5.4 percent; Japan, 4.6; while the Philippines ranked 47th with a measly 0.2 percent carbon emission.

The failure to fulfill the Kyoto targets prompted the UN to call on nations to set new emission targets and a binding pact expected to be adopted during the Copenhagen summit later this week in a bid to reverse the catastrophic effects of climate change.

Scientific basis

Alvarez cited the recommendation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which provided the scientific basis for the Philippine proposal.

The deep and early cut, he said, was needed so that the world’s temperature would “not reach the tipping point of 2 degrees’ centigrade heating.”

IPCC wants countries led by industrialized nations—called Annex 1 countries—to drastically cut emissions by say, 40 percent up to 2020 from the 1990 carbon levels, said Alvarez.

In COP15, the implementation mechanisms for emission reduction will be agreed upon, while the non-Annex 1 (developing countries) “will seek financing and technology transfer for climate adaptation and risk reduction as an offshoot of the Bali call for action in 200,” said Emmanuel de Guzman, one of UNISDR advisers in the Asia Pacific, attending the conference.

Alvarez said the Philippines, like other island-nations in the Pacific, were the most vulnerable to frequent and stronger cyclones as a result of the planet’s warming temperature.

“We’re asking a cut of 20-40 percent in order to minimize the ferocity of the storms,” he said.

ASEAN nod

During a meeting in late September on climate change in Bangkok, Thailand, members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) nations were briefed about the “deep and early cut” proposal.

“There was mounting sympathy [for the proposal],” said Alvarez, pointing out that during a week of preparatory talks in Bonn, Germany, ASEAN ministers had sought a meeting with the Philippines on the deep and early cut on emissions. –Michael Lim Ubac, Philippine Daily Inquirer