Grassroots organizations, scientists and environmental groups formally launched today the Philippine Climate Watch Alliance (PCWA) to lead a national advocacy campaign on the issues of global warming and climate change.

Meggie Nolasco the National Spokesperson of PCWA said that the Philippines is among the developing countries that is most vulnerable to the impacts of global warming, based on global scientific consensus and the recent Fourth Assessment Report of UN IPCC.

"However, the present government and its agencies are making our country ill‐equipped to respond to the impacts of climate change by not pursuing comprehensive policies and programs to respond to climate change" she added.

According to government records and data, the Department of Energy (DOE) and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) continue to raise our national green house gases (GHG) emissions by implementing programs and projects, which result in unprecedented pollution and environmental destruction.

"The Philippine government should instead stop green washing and seriously address the issue of climate change. This can be done first by immediately stopping projects, such as mining revitalization program, fossil fuel development projects, and other highly extractive industries, which only compound the problem of climate change.

Ms. Felina Mendres, leader of Mahan, a national peasant women federation and one of the convenors, said that poor people particularly in the rural and coastal areas would be the most affected by climate change. Rising sea level, landslides, prolonged drought, and extreme weather patterns is being highly felt in our communities.

"Poor Communities should have more access to information about climate change and strong assistance from the government to raise and develop our capacity to respond to global warming and the changing climate. We are suffering twice, we are displaced by anti‐people policies and by the environmental consequences of such extractive projects."

The formation of the alliance is timely as the Conference of Parties (COP) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP) are nearing its final leg of negotiations in the establishment of a post‐Kyoto Protocol global agreement on climate change. The COP 14 will be held on December 1‐12, 2008 in Poznan, Poland.

"On December meeting, since the Philippine Government has no concrete programs that will contribute to the global initiatives against climate change, PCWA will put forward a strong demand to developed countries to reduce by 50‐90% carbon emission in the next three decades and for the Philippine government to develop a participatory roadmap responding to global warming and climate change. We believe this is doable and justifiable to avert a global temperature rise of 2 degrees Celsius," says Dr. Giovanni Tapang, convenor of PCWA and chairman of progressive group AGHAM.

According to scientific consensus an increase by more than 2 degrees Celsius in mean global temperature would have serious irreversible consequences leading to catastrophic events beyond any human experience.

"We are calling for the establishment of an efficient, equitable and transparent global financial mechanism with sufficient climate fund should be established under the COP. This is to ensure the judicious use of resources for people's adaptation to climate change impacts and the installation of effective mitigation measures. The industrialized nations such as the United States, European Union and Japan which are historically responsible and culpable over global warming should be the primarily contribute to this climate fund," Dr. Helen Mendoza, a climate change activist and also PCWA convenor.

In their Unity Statement, PCWA says, "The root cause of global warming is rooted in the unsustainable, wasteful and profit‐oriented production of the global economy. Under this set up, industrialized countries and their TNCs will continue to extract, produce, and consume carbon‐based fuels in an unsustainable and detrimental level. The current neo‐liberal globalization policies of industrialized countries, international financial institutions and export credit agencies, which the Philippine government firmly adheres to, perpetuate this situation."

Reference:

Meggie Nolasco, Kalikasan‐PNE, spokesperson PCWA, 924-8756, 09163733275.

Felina Mendres, AMIHAN, convenor of PCWA, 9223982.

Dr. Giovanni Tapang, AGHAM chairperson, convenor of PCWA, 0928697480.