Filipino Youth Beyond Paris (and yes, youth pa rin ako)

Ang suwerte ng kabataan ngayon. Ang dami nilang opportunities for youth engagement. Basta may event o program na meant for youth participants, tsine-check ko kaagad ang age qualification. Hindi na kasi ako pasok sa Philippine definition pero sa UN, youth pa ako so wapakels ako sa inyo, haha! Joke lang.

Anyway, inorganisa ng Climate Reality Project Philippines ang “Filipino Youth Beyond Paris: Acting on Climate, from Paris to Kigali and beyond,” isang climate action conference para sa mga youth (yes!). Ninais din nitong pag-usapan ang national youth statement on climate na ibibigay sa Philippine delegation sa 23rd Conference on Parties sa Bonn, Germany.

Hindi iyan isang bonggang party. Meeting iyan at negosasyon patungkol sa Paris Agreement. Ang Agreement na ito ay naglalayong i-limit ang pag-init ng mundo below two degrees at tinatarget nga natin ay 1.5 degrees kasi just a slight increase in temperature could mean the end of the world as we know it. OA?! Pero seriously, remember Yolanda? Bagyo pa more ang dala nito.

Picture ng aming mock negotiation (Photo from Climate Reality Philippines).

Eh, ano naman iyong Kigali? Bale siyudad ito sa Rwanda kung saan na-ammend iyong Montreal Protocol. Iyong Montreal Protocol ay nagpa-phase out ng mga ozone-depleting substances. Dahil walang effect sa ozone ang hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) ginawa siyang substitute as refrigerant pero powerful greenhouse gas pala siya. So doon sa Kigali Amendment, kailangang i-phase out na rin ang HFCs. Gets?

Policy work can actually be exciting pag naiintindihan mo ang mga galawang nagaganap. Isa pa importante rin siya kasi ito iyong nagiging basehan ng mga pagbabagong ninanais natin. At sa mga policy work na ito, siyempre dapat involved ang all sectors including the youth. Kasi nga, tayo raw iyong pag-asa ng bayan na paulit-ulit binabanggit na para bang nakalimutan na natin. Kasi feeling nila puro selfie ang alam ng mga millenials. Pero sa totoo lang, sa tingin ko mas empowered at proactive ang mga kabataan ngayon, which is an awesome thing!

So balik tayo sa climate action, you want to know what you can do? Check out 101 ways to fight climate change. Sali ka rin sa iba’t-ibang youth initiatives at sabihan mo ako kung merong event pang-youth, iyong UN definition ha, hehe! But at the end of the day, bata o matanda, lahat tayo may magagawa para masolusyonan ang climate change. And the time to act is NOW!

Ratifying the Paris Agreement

Climate change is real. I suppose we have already established that. And the Paris Agreement, though not perfect, is a welcome attempt to combat climate change.

One key point of the Paris Agreement, as summarized by The Guardian, is limiting the temperature rise to 1.5C. The layman may not understand how that is important but let’s just say that a mere 0.85C increase of temperature spells death through catastrophic weather occurrences so we could imagine how worse it could get. We have, however, already reached 1C and according to data, this would continue on.

There are commitments of reducing carbon emissions, the culprit of climate change, but they are simply promises. Reduction of emissions would in a sense, stymie our development as claimed by President Duterte although the agreement recognizes that peaking will take longer for developing countries. So I guess that allows us to continue trashing the planet? Well there is also a provision on financial support expected to help developing countries adapt to climate change and transition to clean energy.

The Philippines is one of the 197 nations which signed the Paris Agreement. However, we haven’t ratified it yet. To date, 92 parties already did. For a vulnerable developing country such as ours, ratifying the Paris Agreement would let us fully engage and negotiate with other parties so that gaps in the treaty may be addressed.

Again, the Paris Agreement is far from perfect but it’s better than nothing. At the end of the day, curbing climate change is dependent on humanity’s collective political will. We either wallow in the blame game or we can choose to take action. We decide.

 

Take action now and sign the petition asking for the Philippines to ratify the Paris Agreement.