(PNA file photo)
MANILA – Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary and Climate Change Commission (CCC) chairperson-designate Carlos Dominguez raised the urgency for public action on climate change, warning recent disasters from extreme weather events due to this scourge further offer a preview of what passiveness will lead to.
The onslaught of deadly and devastating floods in Germany and China as well as heatwaves in the US highlight need for people to be creative, ambitious and innovative in battling climate change, he noted.
"This is a battle we cannot afford to lose," Dominguez said Tuesday at CCC's online forum on the changing climate.
The forum explored measures for helping the country better adapt to and mitigate climate change.
"Over the past months, we saw how climate change is making weather disturbances more extreme across the globe," Dominguez said. "Devastating heat waves struck parts of the western US. From Germany to China, extreme flooding caused death and destruction."
He described those disasters as "severe symptoms of a long-term climate emergency."
Such an emergency is threatening countries' survival.
Dominguez cited public climate action and literacy as the country's greatest defense against the changing climate's wrath.
"We have to convince every individual to participate in a revolution in lifestyles so that we all reduce our carbon footprint," he said.
Carbon footprint is the total quantity of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that human activities generate.
There's also a need for climate adaptation and mitigation strategies that the public can actually carry out, Dominguez noted.
"We need to develop a doable plan of action for every economic sector and every community," he said.
According to experts, coal-fired power generation and other human activities are increasing the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs).
They said the continuing accumulation of GHG emissions in the atmosphere is further trapping heat so the global temperature is rising, changing climate.
The Philippines is among the countries most vulnerable to and at risk for climate change, they noted.
Sea level and temperature rise, as well as increasing onslaught of extreme weather events, are climate change's impacts on the country, they continued.
"As one of the countries most vulnerable to dire effects of climate change, the Philippines is determined to take action now," Dominguez reiterated.
The Philippines' submission of its first nationally determined contribution (NDC) this year is among manifestations of such determination to help address climate change, he noted.
"In that submission, we committed to reducing our GHG emissions by 75 percent over the next decade," he said.
He acknowledged such target reduction is "ambitious" and a considerable undertaking for the country which isn't even a major GHG emitter.
However, he said this also "underscores the urgency with which we view this greatest of challenges facing the world today."
Among GHG emission-reducing measures which the country must undertake are retiring coal-fired power plants nationwide and replacing these with renewable energy sources as well as passing legislation banning single-use plastics and replacing these with environment-friendly, low-cost and sustainable materials, he said.
Aside from having to undertake such domestic measures, Dominguez said the Philippines will continue raising its climate concerns before the international community.
"Even as we transition to more sustainable economic activities domestically, the Philippines will continue to call for broader climate justice," he reassured.
He said the country will reiterate such a call during the UN climate conference this year.
"In the upcoming climate talks with world leaders in November, we will demand climate finance, technologies, capacity development support and more ambitious NDCs from the developed countries," he said. (PNA)
