GMA urged to ‘look before you leap’

The Civil Society Organizations (CSO) Working Group (WG) on Climate Change and Development, a coalition of over 30 organizations working on climate change-related issues, calls on President Gloria Arroyo to take a long and careful look at the Copenhagen Accord and firmly resist being rushed into committing the Philippines to the highly controversial and widely-criticized document, without a thorough study and deliberations of its implications on our climate survival and its consequences on our economic development.

The group also calls on the new Climate Change Commission to initiate serious discussions among different sectors on the political, economic and environmental ramifications of the Accord, and urges presidential candidates to speak their minds on this important issue that will have long-term effects on the lives of the Filipino people.

“An ambiguous, non-legally binding deal forged by only 26 nations led by President Barack Obama and orchestrated by Danish Premier Rasmussen can not be a substitute for the legally-binding Kyoto Protocol which was crafted and agreed by all Parties under a transparent process, and which binds developed countries to cut their GHG emissions and pay for their historical culpability in polluting the atmospheric space,” says Chito Tionko of the CSO WG.

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

According to CSO WG Coordinator Rowena Bolinas, the money the Accord promises to deliver in the amount of $30 billion between now and 2012 and $100 billion by 2020 is largely uncertain and the Accord is devoid of specifics as to its source, provision and governance.

“The total amount of the non-binding pledges made so far falls short by 2 billion per year,” Bolinas cites, adding that most of Japan’s funding is in the form of loans, while much of the European Union (EU) money has simply been re-pledged and little is committed over and above the 0.7 percent of gross national product aid target promised since 1972. The funds promised by the US, on the other hand, is subject to congressional approval that is highly uncertain in view of the current debate among US legislators. “In our view, this is an alarming indication of the type of financial support poor nations will be receiving as payment of the climate debt of developed countries—redirected development aid, more loans earmarked for private sector investment, and not the much needed adaptation funds for communities suffering the brunt of climate change impacts.”

Of the $380 million pledges President Arroyo got as a result of attending the climate talks in Copenhagen, $250 million of this is concessional loan from the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) administered by the World Bank and other multi-lateral financing agencies, as reported by Philippine Star on December 20, 2009.

Shirley Bolaños, a community development worker based in Sorsogon, asks the President and other political leaders “not to be swayed by tactics employed by developed countries to undermine the UNFCCC process, particularly the Kyoto Protocol.”
Bolaños, who attended the Bangkok and Copenhagen talks, expressed deep disappointment over the outcome that is the Copenhagen Accord. “It is not fair, not ambitious and not binding.” she stresses, “and will result in an unjust burden-sharing arrangement that will significantly hamper our chances of attaining development.”

The CSO WG urges the President through the Climate Change Commission to immediately conduct broad consultation with various sectors on the implications of translating into concrete actions, the earlier commitments made by the Philippine delegation on emission reduction target, namely 5 percent annually from 1990 level by 2012 and the 20 percent deviation from BAU.

The CSO WG concludes, “If the President is intent on leaving a firm legacy in protecting the long-term interests of the country, it is best that she adopt a cautious attitude towards associating the Philippines with the Accord, and she should strongly insist on returning the focus on working with the other Parties to the UNFCCC to complete the pending negotiations in the AWG-LCA and the AWG-KP in order that something concrete may be ready for adoption by the time the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC meets again in Mexico this December 2010.”

The CSO Working Group on Climate Change and Development is composed of: Ateneo School of Government, AR Now, Alyansa Tigil Mina, ALTEResearch, Center for Community Journalism and Development, Center for Environmental Concerns, Center for Empowerment and Resource Development, Christian Aid, Coastal Core Inc., Conservation International, DRR-Net, Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration, Ecological Society of the Philippines, Freedom from Debt Coalition, Foundation for the Philippine Environment, GAIA International, Greenpeace International, Haribon Foundation, Health Care Without Harm, IDEALS, Jubilee South, Legal Rights & Natural Resources Center, Marinduque Council for Environmental Concerns, Miriam PEACE, NGO Forum on the ADB, NGOs for Fisheries Reform, Non-Timber Forest Products-Exchange Program, ODA Watch, Oxfam, Panay Rural Development Center, Inc., Partido Kalikasan, Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement, Responsible Ilonggos for Sustainable Energy, Rice Watch & Action Network, SARILAYA, SEARICE, Soljuxpax, Tambuyog Development Center, Third World Network, World March of Women and World Wildlife Fund. –CSO Working Group on Climate Change and Development, Manila Times