Come Dec. 7 to 18, world leaders and environmental ministers will descend on Copenhagen, Denmark. COP15 is the official name of the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit — the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This is to continue moving the agreements and sign off on the non-agreements made during the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012.
It affects the Philippines in that we are second largest archipelago on this planet and forms the apex of the Coral Triangle, the world’s most productive undersea food factory. According to the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF, the world’s largest and most respected conservation organization), this area annually generates close to 40 tonnes of seafood per square kilometer. How precious is that!
WWF is calling for the continuation of the Kyoto protocol in industrialized countries as well as a decisive protocol in Copenhagen — which should legally bind all major emitters. Should talks break down, then more frequent and destructive climate events will surely assail climate-vulnerable countries — especially our country. Although some people in the know are already trying not to be discouraged by inside talk that COP15 will not fully succeed, we still want to keep our hopes up to see the main objectives at least partly realized. These objectives include: to significantly reduce greenhouse gases for industrialized countries (the US and China being the major offenders who did not sign the Kyoto protocol); cap specific emissions for developing countries; and the creation of a worldwide financing fund specific for climate adaptation measures especially in developing countries. This last one is what would benefit us directly if realized as we have clear grim examples with the recent typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng and flood disasters.
COP15 may seem so far away and so gigantic an undertaking where ordinary citizens like us won’t even have a chance to participate in. But as synchronicity would have it, a former office associate of mine, Paul Garilao, sent me an e-mail from Hawaii where he is presently based. And here was the answer to what each of us can try to do at least leading up to the COP15 days. Raise awareness for it!
Paul saw an online competition sponsored by CNN, YouTube and Danish government. He quickly called his Manila-based former De La Salle classmate Alfonso Orioste who jumped in to shoot footages in Manila. They created and uploaded a simple YouTube video-generated campaign called “Raise Your Voice” to appeal to the viewers to think about the effects of climate change by joining the online campaign. As of this writing, this is only the single entry from the Philippines and Southeast Asia.
Their video entry is presently featured by YouTube together with other four contenders from Germany, France, India and Italy. In the video entry, the young guys discuss disaster management system and major shift to use alternative energies. If they are able to generate a significant number of votes, Paul and Alfonso will represent the Philippines and raise environmental concerns with the leaders during COP15. What is heartwarming about the video is the “individual power” that these two reflect... where change begins with one’s personal actions. And how they are moving! They are moving online and offline, into schools, organizations and groups to help them spread the word. Based on viewpoints from a developed and developing nation, the two passionate environmentalists highlight action plans to reduce carbon emissions by industries and implement preventive measures when natural disasters strike. Their main purpose is to just continue conversations on issues about climate change not only in the community but through all social networking sites.
Soon-to-be-lawyer Alfonso Orioste said, “As we have experienced, the storms Ondoy and Pepeng taught us a lot of lessons. This is a wake up call for the Philippine government to implement laws and programs on environmental management and disaster preparedness.” He is focusing his specialization on environmental policies. Paul Garilao, meanwhile, was a licensed engineer in Manila whose main research was on Liquefied Petroleum Gas two stroke engines, which focused on alternative energies. Paul takes the global stand in “asking our global leaders to reach out to developing countries like the Philippines in helping us craft an effective communications program to respond to disasters.”
There are environmental movements, groups and organizations all over the world now focusing on COP15 as another deciding point on the key environmental issues of our time. Can we do our very small share? Can we begin by clicking on that YouTube video to raise the number of people supporting Paul and Alfonso as they are the only voices from Southeast Asia, and from a third-world country to boot in this YouTube online campaign. Let’s begin to open our ears and minds to COP15 and wish it a successful summit. For what’s at stake is not land, nor money, nor power. At stake is the survival of our people and our planet.
(The two best video campaigns will win through public voting until tomorrow. Visit www.youtube.com/cop15. Click Vote; search Philippines on the videos per country; Click the “green thumbs up” sign for the entry entitled: “Raise Your Voice by Filipino environmental advocates.” The video can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8RanL2KMyo)