At its last meeting the Philippine Ambassadors Foundation Incorporated (PAFI) expressed concern over the recent announcement that the Philippine government has approved the building of 45 coal-fired plants. The country, it seems, will not just be maintaining but actually increasing its reliance on coal, the most polluting of all fossil fuels and the single greatest threat to the world’s climate. This will be contrary to what the world’s nations, including the Philippines, have committed to do under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change of 2016 which will be open for ratification ( by at least 55 of the highest carbon- emitting countries to take effect) this 22 April 2016.

The Philippine government action is certainly unexpected of the country that experienced in “Yolanda” the most ferocious and damaging typhoon the world ever saw and that has been listed at the top of countries most vulnerable to such and other calamitous effects of climate change. It is at the very least puzzling considering that unremitting global warming has already put the Philippines and its neighboring island countries in a precarious position raising coastal waters in these parts five times higher than the general average and promising even more severe typhoons in the future.

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