Philippines pledges 70% carbon emissions cut by 2030

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines submitted to the United Nations on Thursday its initial commitments to address climate change including a 70-percent reduction of carbon emissions by 2030.

In a note to reporters, Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said President Aquino approved the submission  of the country's Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).

Aquino is the chair of the National Climate Change Commission.

The INDC identifies a country's climate change mitigation and adaptation actions that will be implemented beyond 2020.

Climate Change Commission Secretary Lucille Sering said that under its INDC, the Philippines committed to reduce its carbon emissions (CO2) by 70 percent by 2030, which will come from the energy, transport, waste, forestry and industry sectors.

Sering said these reductions in emissions are conditional and will be pursued if sufficient financial resources, technology development and transfer and capacity building will be made available to the Philippines after the Paris climate talks in December.

The country's initial commitments stated in the INDC will help achieve a below two degree Celsius increase in global temperatures.

Sering said the initial commitments are anchored on the policy declaration under the Climate Change Law of 2009, as amended in 2012, that the State shall cooperate with the global community in the resolution of climate change issues.

"Our INDC is based on our philosophy of undertaking mitigation as a function of adaptation, therefore, we will still prioritize adaptation measures," she said.

Submitted INDCs will be turned into a synthesis report by the UNFCCC and help determine if the world can pave a way towards a climate-resilient and climate-smart future.

In its INDC, the Philippines identified priority measures to enhance its over-all resilience which include the following:

• institutional and system strengthening for downscaling climate change models
• climate scenario-building
• climate monitoring and observation
• rolling-out of science-based climate/disaster risk and vulnerability assessment process as the basis for mainstreaming climate and disaster risks reduction in development plans, programs and projects
• development of climate and disaster-resilient ecosystem
• enhancement of climate and disaster-resilience of key sectors – agriculture, water and health
• systematic transition to a climate and disaster-resilient social and economic growth
• research and development on climate change, extremes and impacts for improved risk assessment and management

Sering said the Philippines will update its INDC when more data becomes available.

As of Thursday, 136 nations have submitted their INDCs to the UNFCCC.