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Malacañang said the government is now considering declaring a national climate emergency following the series of strong typhoons that devastated parts of the country this year.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said this will give President Rodrigo R. Duterte the opportunity to find a “permanent solution” to the effects of climate change.
“Well, I think this will be studied by the Palace due to the statement of the president in the General Assembly of the UN (United Nations) and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN),” Roque said during a press conference in line on Tuesday.
He made the statement in response to Greenpeace Philippines’ call for the country to declare a national climate emergency.
During his speech to the UN General Assembly last September and at the recently concluded 37th ASEAN Summit, Duterte raised the issue of climate change and how it needs a global response as it now threatens the lives of many people in various countries, including the Philippines.
He demanded that developed countries make drastic cuts in their carbon emissions, which trigger climate change.
Duterte attributed the massive damage caused by typhoons Rolly (international name: Goni) to the effects of climate change.
“It remains one of the president’s top priorities because we know that there are studies that say the Philippines is among the top five countries in the world, which are the most susceptible to climate change,” said Roque.
The Nagkaisa labor coalition supported the government’s initiatives to demand compensation from developed countries responsible for natural calamities, said to be caused by climate change.
“For us, the government must be present not only in the areas affected by the calamity, but also at the negotiating tables, pressuring rich countries and their TNCs (transnational companies) to pay the climate debts they owe us,” he said. Nagkaisa.
“Either we taxpayers will continue to pay those bills forever or we will charge them all to the world’s biggest polluters,” he added.
TNCs, the coalition said, are companies primarily engaged in the extraction and production of fossil fuels.
