Climate groups laud draft plan to reduce carbon emissions by 75%
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine government’s higher ambition of reducing carbon emissions by 2030 is a welcome development for some climate groups, calling it a “mighty start.”
The latest draft text of the country’s National Determined Contributions states that the Philippines is committing to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by 2030. This is a significant increase from the goal of reducing emissions by 30% by 2040 in the initial draft presented last December.
“[This represents] the country’s ambition for GHG mitigation for the period from 2020 to 2030 for the sectors of agriculture, waste, industry, transport and energy,” read the draft text prepared by the Climate Change Commission.
At least 2% of this mitigation target will be implemented unconditionally with nationally mobilized resources, while 72.67% will depend on support or means of implementation provided under the 2015 Paris Agreement.
NDCs embody the efforts by signatories to the Paris accord to reduce carbon emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
The latest climate plan was presented at a stakeholder consultation Wednesday.
‘Mighty start’
Policy group Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities lauded the higher ambition in the current draft.
“We believe the target total -75% reductions offered in the current draft NDC is a welcome and mighty start. A stance of ambition is proper and we must have the courage to set aside political differences in order to chase common goals,” said Renato Redentor Constantino, ICSC executive director of policy.
Nazrin Castro, The Climate Reality Project Philippines branch manager, said the “ambitious” mitigation target shows the readiness of sectors to leapfrog to a greener and more sustainable development pathway
“We are ready to mobilize our roster of Climate Reality Leaders from the different sectors of society to provide technical support, advocate for ambitious action and create more awareness of the NDC at the community level,” Castro said.
Constantino called on the government to deliver both first and second NDCs in one submission by declaring the Intended NDC submitted in 2015 as the country’s first NDC.
“If we deliver—in one submission—both first and enhanced NDCs, our agencies can focus on one single process of improvements aimed at delivering another credible 2025 NDC ratchet with similar ambition,” he said.
The Philippines, one of the most vulnerable countries to the catastrophic impacts of climate change, failed to submit its NDC to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change last December 31.
It will be submitted by the end of the month.
Suggestions
ICSC said the country’s NDC must include the modernization of the country’s electricity grid and must support the Department of Energy in filing claims to the Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage, which promotes the implementation of approaches to address loss and damage associated with climate change impacts.
The policy group also said there must be a clear finance component in the NDC. It added that the full quantification and substantiation of the NDC requires further resources and support.
“Let the high emitting countries pay for the modelling effort and other likely more costly simulations and technical studies, even as they pay for strategies conditional on climate finance that are already quantified. Climate justice is our foreign policy—we must demand climate finance compliance from rich countries,” ICSC said.
Climate and environmental groups earlier criticized the country's climate pledge as “underwhelming,” “inadequate” and “shameful.”
Under the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, global warming must be limited well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels while pursuing efforts for a tougher ceiling of 1.5°C.
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