Palace welcomes Paris Agreement aimed at curbing global warming

The Malacañang Palace (Facebook photo)

MANILA – Malacanang welcomed on Sunday the Paris Agreement which aims at curbing the rise in global temperatures to less than 2 degrees Celsius.

“The Philippines welcomes the Paris agreement as it responds to President (Benigno) Aquino’s call at the start of COP21 for all people to act and come to an agreement that allows all voices to be heard and takes into consideration the particular situations of all the nations that have taken this historic step to end decades of deadlock and take decisive climate change action,” Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said.

On Saturday, the 195 nations attending the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) climate meeting outside Paris agreed to adopt an agreement that covers both developed and developing countries.

The agreement, Coloma, said was reached after almost two weeks of painstaking consensus building and convergence around five major points, namely: a global temperature goal of 1.5 degrees; the inclusion of human rights as its bedrock principle; the emphasis on ecosystem integrity; the commitment of support in finance, technology and capacity building for all adaptation and mitigation efforts; and the inclusion of a loss and damage article that would ensure the recovery, restoration and resilience of communities, livelihoods and ecosystems.

“The Paris agreement also addresses the situation of climate vulnerable countries like the Philippines that bear the heaviest albeit a most disproportionate share of the burden of climate change in terms of assuring the conveyance of resources that will fully support adaptation and mitigation efforts,” he said.

Coloma said the Philippines will fulfill its intended nationally determined contribution (INDC), committing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions conditionally by 70 percent by 2030 in solidarity with other nations that will provide support in terms of finance, technology and capacity building.

“Finally, the government will continually engage our people in the spirit of ‘bayanihan’ to work together in building disaster resilient communities,” Coloma said.

Last Nov. 30, President Aquino delivered the keynote message during the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) in Paris, France.

The CVF is an organization of developing countries that are most vulnerable to climate change currently headed by the Philippines.