Climate Change

THE PHILIPPINES will resist pressures for it to commit to greenhouse gas emission cuts and will demand damages from large industrial economies at next month’s talks for a global deal to fight climate change, a ranking official said late last week.

GENEVA—The protective ozone layer in the earth’s upper atmosphere has stopped thinning and should largely be restored by mid-century thanks to a ban on harmful chemicals, UN scientists said on Thursday.

Brussels, 13rd September (ITUC OnLine):  A new report launched today “Conference News: Workshop on Climate Change, its impacts on employment and labour markets” examining the impacts of climate change on employment, brings together the findings of a group of 50 trade union and university experts on the subject. The report arises from a March 2010…

MANILA, Philippines – Contrary to claims made by critics that it has not accomplished anything, the Climate Change Commission (CCC) said it has “always been ahead of its mandate despite some budgetary setbacks.” CCC Secretary Heherson Alvarez said that in fact, the commission “is ready to do battle with climate change, nearly completing the country’s…

PHILIPPINE businesses have joined the bandwagon for certification by the United States’ Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED), which has a set of standards for new and existing buildings, in their desire to help in the effort to effectively meet climate change.

THE country leads in ozone preservation among 48 countries, according to data from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). While that is good news, Environment Secretary Ramon Paje said that more things need to be done to preserve the ozone layer.

MANILA, Aug. 29 — Climate Change Commission (CCC) vice chairman Secretary Heherson T. Alvarez has declared that the drafting of the National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP) is underway, as the law mandates its completion by April 2011.

EVEN SMALL businesses have to adapt to unavoidable changes in climate and help mitigate their adverse effects, experts said in a forum organized by the Institute for Small-Scale Industries at the University of the Philippines (UP) in Diliman early this month.

MANILA, Philippines – Are we prepared for climate change? No, according to the consensus arrived at yesterday during the opening of a two-day Government-Civil Society Organization La Niña Summit at the BSWM Conference Hall of the Department of Agriculture.

Building resilience The impact of climate change on agriculture will hit the poorest Filipinos first and hardest, so exploring ways to help farmers adapt to the changing climate is of critical importance in the Philippines, according to William Dar, director general of the India-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics.

THE Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (iCSC) is urging the Philippine government to access the United Nations Adaptation Fund (AF) directly instead of going through channels like the Washington-based lender, the World Bank Group.

THE carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions of the transport sector in Asia are expected to increase by 54 percent by 2030 if nothing is done to control them.

MANILA, Philippines – Seven out of 10 Filipinos believe that climate change is a danger to both the environment and their families, a new survey by Pulse Asia revealed Monday.

In the Philippines, farmers are already feeling the heat. While climate change is already hitting millions of vulnerable people in the country, farmers, too, are being affected—where drought, flooding, hunger and disease are becoming more common than ever. Our correspondent Imelda V. Abaño embarked on a mission to look into the plight of the farmers…

WASHINGTON—Even modest rises in global temperatures will drive down rice production in Asia, the world’s biggest grower of the cereal grain that millions of poor people depend on as a staple food, a study published Monday warned.

WASHINGTON – Scientists from around the world are providing even more evidence of global warming, one day after President Barack Obama renewed his call for climate legislation.

MANILA, Philippines –  Climate Change Commission vice chairman Heherson Alvarez has denied that loans related to the government’s climate change program have been spent by the agency.

THERE ARE many misbeliefs or misconceptions about lightning. Some say that lightning will never strike twice in the same place. Others think that lightning will always strike the highest point. Still others say that their home is safe because it has never been struck. The overconfident individual says that it will never happen to him/her.

MANILA, Philippines – The Climate Change Commission (CCC) is set to forge an agreement with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to put in place aggressive adaptation measures to protect communities from strong typhoons this rainy season.

PARIS – The first six months of 2010 brought a string of warmest-ever global temperatures, but connecting these dots to long-term climate change patterns remains frustratingly difficult, experts say.

MANILA, Philippines – A group advocating climate change preparedness has urged President Aquino to undertake “immediate and full-scale changes” in the Climate Change Commission amid the possible diversion of a P10.5-billion French loan without its knowledge.

MANILA, Philippines – The vice-chairman of the Climate Change Commission on Monday warned that using foreign loans or grants dedicated to climate change to plug the budget deficit could undermine the entire Philippine climate mitigation and adaptation strategy.

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—While the world’s leaders are scratching their heads and expensive think tanks wrack their brains trying to find answers to global warming and food security, a nongovernment organization here is propagating a solution that hit these two problems at one go, but has not talked much about its successes.

POWER UTILITIES in the Asean have vowed to shift to green energy to minimize carbon emissions, in light of the worsening threat of global warming.

PARIS, France—Dreams of braking global warming by storing carbon emissions from power plants could be undermined by the risk of leakage, according to a study published on Sunday.

INTERNATIONAL TRADE UNION CONFEDERATION ITUC OnLine Vancouver BC, 24 June 2010: Unions from all over the world are to adopt today an ambitious resolution on climate change. In the framework of the 2nd ITUC Congress, unions have debated their role in the fight against climate change, the means to create green and decent jobs and…

MANILA, Philippines – The vast tracts of sugar plantations in the so-called sugar capital of the country might not escape the harsh impact of the escalating climate change.

DANILO Cardenas (left), deputy executive director of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry, and Natural Resources Research and Development, discusses with directors of Mindanao research and development (R&D) consortia the priority areas for agri-forestry climate-change adaptation.  The activity was part of the Mindanao R&D climate-change summit held recently in Davao City.

It may be hot in Manila, but last week, the mercury soared in Stockholm, as members of the international community were locked in a burning discussion of the day’s headline-making issue: preparing a legally-binding treaty on mercury. With this in mind, our man in Stockholm, Manny Calonzo, reports that waste and toxic watchdog EcoWaste Coalition…

SYDNEY, Australia—Weather-related catastrophes brought about by climate change are increasing, the top UN humanitarian official said Sunday as he warned of the possibility of “mega-disasters.”