SECRETARY Heherson Alvarez, the presidential adviser on Global Warming and Climate Change, filed with the United Nations in June proposals to amend the carbon emission targets for key countries scheduled in the Kyoto Protocol. The major task of the Copenhagen conference is precisely to increase the emission curbs under the Kyoto protocol.

Secretary Alvarez will lead the Philippine delegation to Copenhagen—unless President Gloria Arroyo decides to go (especially now that President Barack Obama has announced he is going).

The President uses these important meetings to touch base with other world leaders in the hope of reminding them of pending matters mutually beneficial to the Philippines and the other leaders’ countries.

The Philippine proposals have been transmitted to the countries that are parties to the Kyoto Protocol, which means these proposals will be taken up—along with other countries’ amendments—in Copenhagen on December 7 to 18.

If adopted, the amendments will change “Annex B” of the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and would then be part of the document that emerges in Copenhagen.

The amendments raise the “quantified emission limitation or reduction commitments” of various countries.

GMA calls for unified East Asian stance

President Arroyo, on Thursday, November 26, in her keynote address at the Third East Asian Seas Congress (EASC), called on East Asian countries to have a united stand on demanding a binding commitment from nations to reduce carbon emissions.

“We are calling for a binding outcome in Copenhagen,” the President told her audience of said East Asian leaders at the third EASC held at the Philippine International Convention Center.

“At no time has the need for greater cooperation and connectivity been demanded of East Asia than now. We can come together to work hand-in-hand to provide assistance and put in place new measures to combat natural disasters.”

The President said the path to sustainable global growth is a low-carbon “green” economy, better energy efficiency, cleaner and renewable energy and good coastal resource management.

As part of the country’s commitment, the President said the Philippines will set aside 15 percent of municipal waters in every municipality as sanctuary. She said this is in accordance with existing Philippine laws.

Attended by some 1,500 participants from 43 countries, the 2009 EASC had for its theme, “Adaptation to Climate Change through Integrated Coastal and Ocean Management.”

“This is an issue for everyone. We must rise and fall together; we are all interconnected. Your supply of fish may come from the rich fishing grounds in the Philippines; our supply of steel may come from a coastal port in a neighboring nation. Each dependency will be threatened if we do not act together,” she said.

The President said it is important for the Philippines as well as for the region to ensure that any outcome in Copenhagen includes a cohesive and comprehensive financing mechanism to support climate change adaptation such as disaster control and management, and integrated coastal management.

Earlier, after typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng devastated Metro Manila and Central and Northern Luzon, President Arroyo called on the emitter nations to contribute generously to the non-emitting countries for their renewable and other projects to mitigate the damage caused by disasters caused by climate change.

She pointed out the injustice of the situation where major emitters of greenhouse gas, which are rich countries capable of financing their climate-change adaptation projects, are the least harmed by disasters they cause while the most vulnerable countries that suffer hardly emit any carbons into the atmosphere.

The Philippines is responsible for no more than 0.3 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions in the world (an estimate based on the measured 2004 emission of 0.27 percent of the world’s total).