National consensus on carbon cutting commitment sought

MANILA, Philippines – Presidential Adviser on Global Warming and Climate Change Heherson Alvarez has called for a national consensus on a “new carbon cutting commitment” by the Philippines, as governments prepare for the next global conference on climate change in Poznan, Poland this December.

Alvarez said the global conference seeks to get countries to commit to new targets of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in view of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report in 2007, which emphasized that a 50 percent reduction by 2050 is needed to abort the tipping point of irreversible climate change.

According to Alvarez, the current commitment of developed countries in the first period of the Kyoto Protocol is only a 5 percent GHG emission reduction by 2012.

However, the former Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) secretary noted last week that this commitment is now considered an “obsolete target” in view of more destructive climate change episodes.

He said the IPCC has pointed out that the world is moving closer to the tipping point of 400 parts per million in GHG emissions with its current level of 372 ppm.

Alvarez said that if the 400 ppm level by is reached by 2050, then it would have been “the point of no return” for the world.

“If we don’t cut our greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2050, which is only 42 years away, we will reach the tipping point,” he warned Monday.

If that tipping point is reached, the world will see even more destructive typhoons, deadlier floods, and desertification.

“Small islands will disappear as giant ice caps 40 percent the size of China melt and cause sea levels to rise,” Alvarez added.

In a bid to gather the national consensus on how to reduce the Philippines’ GHG emissions, the office of the Presidential Adviser on Global Warming and Climate Change will sponsor a Carbon Cutting Congress versus Climate Change (CCCvsCC) on Nov. 20 to prepare for the 14th Session of the Conference of Parties on Climate Change scheduled to be held on Dec. 1 to 12 in Poznan.

Alvarez said the carbon cutting conference hopes to form a national consensus among stakeholders from the national and local government, business and industry, academic and science community, and civil society on how to make the Philippines “a carbon neutral country.”

The position that will be formulated from the carbon cutting conference will help the Philippine delegation when it engages other nations in the conference in Poland, he added.

Alvarez then cited the vulnerabilities of the Philippines from climate change and noted that the country is particularly susceptible since it gets an average of 20 storms a year.

The Philippines experiences such number of storms in a year while recent tropical cyclones with winds doubling its strength from 80 kilometers per hour to 160 kph is being witnessed in certain parts of the world, he also said.

“The melting of three-mile thick ice caps in Greenland could cause sea level to rise by 6 to 7 meters, equivalent to the height of three adult Filipinos,” Alvarez said. “Small islands like Guimaras would submerge, and low level areas like the cities of Malabon, Navotas, and Manila will experience even more floods.”

Alvarez said power and transport sectors will be able to make the biggest contributions to reducing greenhouse gas emissions since these are the heaviest users of fossil fuels.