MANILA — The Climate Change Commission (CCC) has lobbied for climate justice and developed countries’ accountability to mitigate the severe impacts of climate change.
During the recent Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) Regional Consultation for Asia, CCC vice chairperson and executive director Robert Borje urged wealthier nations to make appropriations, lamenting that developing countries that are least responsible for climate change will suffer the most.
Stressing the need to help developing nations adapt to extreme weather disturbances, Borje rallied vulnerable countries to work together for transformational global climate action.
“Allow me to reiterate the importance of working on the principle of climate justice – for those who are least responsible for climate change, those with the least resources, and those who are most vulnerable and at risk, the world has to do more,” Borje said in a news release on Friday.
“Conversely – for those most responsible for climate change, with the most resources, they need to do more. For us, this is climate justice.”
Borje said climate action should be anchored on the principles of “common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, and climate justice.”
He also emphasized the need to put a premium on Global Stocktake, a mechanism assessing global response to climate crisis; accelerated adaptation action; loss and damage from climate change; target to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius; and climate financing.
On Wednesday, a World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said that for the first time ever, global temperatures are likely to breach 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming within the next five years.
The WMO also said there is a 98 percent chance that within the next five years, the world will experience the hottest on record, surpassing 2016 when global temperature impacted by about 1.3C (2.3F) of warming.
“It is only through global collective action that we can transform our developing countries' vulnerabilities, and avert, minimize and address existing losses and damages in order to achieve climate resilience,” Borje said.
As part of the collective efforts in attaining the global climate agenda, Borje ensured the Philippines’ support for the CVF and the so-called V20 (Vulnerable 20), a group of 20 nations that are most vulnerable to the climate crisis.
“The CCC and our allies in Congress, most especially Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda who also serves as a CVF Ambassador for Parliaments, remain committed to the work of CVF and V20 in promoting ambitious climate action to safeguard the world’s most vulnerable, developing nations,” Borje said.
The CVF, currently chaired by Ghana, is composed of 58 vulnerable nations, including the Philippines.
In 2015, the Philippines chaired the CVF. Under its presidency, the V20 group was officially founded, and the 1.5 degrees Celsius Campaign was launched ahead of the Conference of the Parties in Paris.
The CCC serves as the CVF National Focal Point of the Philippines.
Under Ghana’s chairmanship, the CVF conducted regional consultations ahead of the 58th Session of the Subsidiary Bodies of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the 28th Meeting of Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC.
The CVF Regional Consultation for Asia was held on Wednesday in preparation for the upcoming climate change negotiations in June and November 2023, in Bonn, Germany and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, respectively. (PNA)
