Five years ago, the nations of the world, including the Philippines, met in Paris, France, on the world’s climate problem – rising world temperatures due to carbon emissions from the world’s industries, causing the polar ice to melt, ocean levels to rise, and spawning more destructive typhoons and hurricanes.
A Climate Ambition Summit was convened this weekend by the United Nations and the governments of Britain and France to assess what progress has been made on the world’s climate since that Paris conference five years ago. The nations had agreed then to try to keep the rise in world temperature to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius and each country submitted its commitment to take steps to help reach that goal.
Last Saturday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the Climate Ambition Summit: “Carbon dioxide levels are at a record high. Today we are 1.2 degrees hotter than before the Industrial Revolution. If we don’t change course, we may be headed for a catastrophic temperature rise of more than 3 degrees this century. That is why today I call on all leaders worldwide to declare a state of climate emergency in their countries until carbon neutrality is reached.” Guterres said 38 countries have already done so. “All other countries should follow,” he added.
The Climate Ambition Summit acknowledged the public commitments announced only recently by some nations led by China whose President Xi Jinping told the conference China would reduce its emissions by 65 percent over 2005 levels by 2030.
China became the first nation to announce its commitment to the Paris goal when President Xi Jinping pledged before the United Nations last September that China would achieve zero carbon emissions by 2060. It was soon followed by Japan, whose Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga committed to achieve the same goal by 2050.
Xi said China was making its commitment although it is still developing economically. Richer countries should step up more, he said, evidently referring to the United States, under President Donald Trump, the only nation that rejected the Paris Agreement. Incoming President Joseph Biden, however, has already announced he will bring the US back to the assembly of nations that have vowed to reduce their carbon emissions.
The Philippines is a minor contributor to the world’s carbon emissions but it has vowed to do its part, Last month, our Department of Energy declared a moratorium on its endorsements for coal power plants. This should lead to “more opportunities for renewable energy to figure prominently in our country’s energy future,” Secretary of Energy Alfonso Cusi said.
The world is still in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic but it has not forgotten the other problems it faces today, such as the climate problem that continues to worsen and threaten the lives of all people on our planet on a scale more massive than regional conflicts, hunger in so many nations, and even epidemics like the one we are now beginning to overcome.
