“Climate change will condemn our people to poverty,”
by Ducky Paredes
In his speech at the United Nations Framework Conference on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Bali, Indonesia, DENR Secretary Lito Atienza said the Philippines has done its bit about global warming, Global warming, at its worst will be deadly to this country. We are already subject to extreme weather events like typhoons, floods and landslides that cause massive loss of lives and property.
The Philippines has, at least taken the first steps towards the shift to renewable energy sources by passing the biofuels law. Atienza also discussed projects and commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that would mitigate the expected increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s near-surface air that would bring about the swelling of the oceans and the disappearances of many of the world’s beaches.
“We have accelerated our shift to renewable energy sources. We are one of the few countries with mandatory vehicle emission testing mandated by law. We have banned open burning. We just passed the biofuels law that provided for its mandatory use and incentives. We are in the top ten countries that have the most number of clean development mechanism (CDM) projects for greenhouse gas emissions,” said Atienza.
“We have less than 10 years to effectively address climate change or it will cause irreversible ecological disasters if temperature increases by 3 to 4 degrees centigrade. Some 340 million people will be displaced and 1.8 billion people will be deprived of drinking water. Climate change will condemn our people to poverty,” warned Atienza.
Atienza, however, also pointed out that population growth is not causing global warming; instead, the overuse of fossil fuels and the use of new technology by the richer countries actually caused the problem of global warming. He ur4ged these rich countries to “act with urgency to safeguard the future.”
Developing countries, including the Philippines, succeeded in calling attention to the urgent need for the international community to fund measures for mitigation, adaptation, transfer-of-technology, and financing schemes.
The conference of 190 nations failed to get a commitment from the United States to cut its emission levels by 25 to 40 percent by 2020. But, at le\east, the US, one of the world’s greatest polluters, said that it was ready to talk about mitigating climate change.
In the case of the Philippines, while it is not a great polluter, climate change will impact very badly on the country which is made up of 7,000 islands, Arise of even half a meter in the sea will submerge large parts of the country and affect a large portion of the population.
Atienza pointed out: “This is a serious challenge for all nations. There is no exception whether highly industrialized or poor countries. We should equally be concerned because we only have one planet to save.
“Rich countries (should) provide better and increased access to the transfer of technologies and to financing and to help provide incentives for forest protection under a pay-and-preserve scheme.
“Climate change can only be resolved through a multilateral arrangement. No one country can resolve this problem. No one country should prevent the resolution of this problem.”
Atienza points out that developing countries that belong to the so-called G-77, which includes the Philippines, won a major victory in Bali after world leaders agreed to tap the long-idle Adaptation Fund to fight global warming.
Established under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the Adaptation Fund, which is being held by the UNFCCC, is supposed to finance concrete projects and programs in global warming-vulnerable developing countries and small-island nations that are parties to the international treaty.
That may well be the greatest benefit to the Philippines that comes from the Bali conference.
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The so-called victory of the Sumilao marchers may well spell the difference between a progressive Sumilao and a backward one. The compradors and the moneylenders who will eventually own all of the lands that will be awarded to Agrarian reform beneficiaries are the ones who have won.
The San Miguel Foods, Inc. entry into the area would have given the small farmer a way to work himself out from poverty. He would have had better prices for his harvest since SMFI would be buying from them directly instead of trough the usual middlemen. SMFI would also have provided credit to the small farmer without the onerous charges that the compradors charge for lending farmers funds to buy seeds, fertilizers and pesticides.
SMFI has not yet lost since it can still bring its case to the courts since its purchase of the land was made possible by a court order from the Supreme Court. The one who has lost a lot is Gloria Arroyo. She styles herself as being a lousy politician but a competent economist.
Her decision on this case proves the exact opposite and makes her a liar. She cannot be any good at economics when she gives in to marchers who were probably paid to march by the compradors and others who will be disadvantaged by SMFI’s entry into the town of Sumilao. An event like this is what most towns hunger for. In fact, if SMFI wants to do something like this in any town anywhere, most of them would welcome the development except that, of course, the ones who have been making their money off the mall farmers will also probably fight to derail SMFI’s entry.
Apparently, Gloria, the economics professor is blind to this simple economic insight. All she saw was the politics of the affair. By giving in to the marchers (note that they are marchers and not necessarily farmers), she proves herself a crass politician who wants to make a good impression on the bishops and other bleeding hearts.
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hvp (12.20.07)
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