President Duterte said yesterday that the Paris convention on climate change was doomed to fail if there will be no sanctions for its signatories that will violate its provisions.
In a speech in Sarangani, Duterte reiterated that the convention should have sanctions for its members who fail to follow the agreement which aimed to deal with greenhouse gas emissions mitigation, adaptation, and finance.
“The one thing that is not present and therefore becomes a very inutile commission is it does not have sanctions. You can commit so many things there, excess of carbon monoxide and all, and yet there is no sanction. You should better understand that. It has to have a sanction for violators,” he said.
“Without a sanction, I do not think it will succeed. It will only fail and worsen the situation for the coming generation. But without a sanction, I don’t think it will succeed,” he added.
“You and I know that if you cannot arrest climate change now, sigurado ‘yan, our children will suffer severe climate changes, typhoons and all.”
Duterte said that he supports the agreement but said that the convention was doing very little to address the issue it aimed to resolve.
“I am for the climate change commission, I really do. The problem is the Climate Change Commission is always calling for a meeting. And always it’s how much carbon footprints you leave on Planet Earth. And it’s all talking, it’s all conferences. So that this time, I said it would be a waste of money,” he said.
