UN: Philippines’ climate law the best in the world

The aim of the Philippine Climate Change Act is to protect the rights of the people in harmony with nature (© Jonicdao/Creative Commons)

By Tierney Smith

The climate change laws in the Philippines are "best in world" according to a UN special envoy.

Margareta Wahlström, the special Disaster Risk Reduction representative of the UN Secretary General praised the Philippines for the law on climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction for taking a lead in the global campaign to mitigate the risk from climate change.

Speaking at a press conference in the country she said: "You do have now an excellent legal framework for disaster risk reduction and an excellent framework for climate adaptation. The basis [of the laws] is really for empowering local governments."

She stressed that the laws represented a policy shift from reactionary to proactive and commended Senator Loren Legarda for her work in creating the laws.

The climate laws in the Philippines consist of two Acts of Parliament. The first, passed in 2009 was the Climate Change Act which created the Climate Change Commission to tackle related issues across the country.

This Commission then cosponsored the second of the Philippines laws the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010.

What makes these laws the best in the world?

Let's compare these laws to the UK Climate Change Act of 2008. In a similar way the Philippines laws set out a Climate Change Commission to tackle climate change, the UK's Committee on Climate Change was also founded as provision to the 2008 law.

However, beyond this the law also laid out clear targets for the country to reduce its emissions by 80% by 2050 on 1990 levels and to set out 5 yearly carbon budgets and incentive mechanism to help the country achieve this aim.

In the same way, the latest country to pass climate laws, Mexico will also set out clear budgets on emission reductions within this legislation as well as establishing a voluntary carbon trading scheme.

Unlike these laws, the Philippines Climate Change Act of 2009 has no legally binding targets on greenhouse gas emissions and it has no targets on renewables.

However, reading over the country's climate laws, some aspects do make the Philippines stand out as progressive when it comes to the ways in which they plan for climate change and help it live up to the new title given to it by Wahlström.

An inclusion of all relevant departments and agencies:

One of the major criticisms of climate policy, the world over, is that it is often treated as an isolated issue, and dealt with by a few specific departments and organisations. How many times before have we heard that their needs to be a more joined up approach to climate policy?

Written into the 2009 Act was the premise that the advisory boards to any Commission should include secretaries from the Departments of Agriculture, Energy, Environment and Natural Resources as well as Education, Foreign Affairs, Health and Interior and Local Government.

Other sectors included in the Commission include Defense, Science and Technology, Industry and Development, showing a multi-faceted approach to climate change.

Outside organizations including representatives for women, from provinces and cities, from industry, education and civil society are also included in the Commission which meets at least four times a year.

To further ensure this cross-sector and cross-department approach is taken it is written into the Act for "the State to systematically integrate the concept of climate change in various phases of policy formulation, development plans, poverty reduction strategies and other development tools and techniques by all agencies and instrumentalities of government."

Implementation of local and national adaptation plans

The Philippines Climate Change Act implemented a National Climate Change Action Plan including national impacts of climate change, the identification of vulnerable communities and areas including ecosystems, identification of disproportionate impact on men, women and children, an assessment of management of risks and the identification of greenhouse has mitigation potentials.

Alongside this, however, it also proposed a series of Local Climate Change Action Plans which would allow frontline agencies to formulate, plan and implement plans in their area within the framework of the National Plan.

The work done by municipal and city governments would then feed back into the National Plan. The Bill also called for municipal and city governments to consider climate change adaptation, as one of their regular functions.

Focus on Gender and youth involvement

Another area where more work has to be done globally is the inclusion of women, and the youth in climate change policy. While this is slowly improving, there is still a lot more to be done to both acknowledge the impacts of a changing climate on these vulnerable groups but also the power they have in driving change.

In the Philippine's Climate Change Act and the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act mentions of both women and children are in abundance including "the policy of the State to incorporate a gender-sensitive, pro-children and pro-poor perspective in all climate change and renewable energy efforts" and to "conduct early recovery and post-disaster needs assessment institutionalizing gender analysis."

The depth and bravery of the Philippines' law should provide food for thought for national negotiators as they gather in Bonn next week for the next round of UN negotiations on climate change.

How do you think the Philippines has done? Should the EU be matching this? What about other developing economies?

Let us know what you think. Leave us a comment below, leave a post on our Facebook page, tweet us @rtccnewswire or email info@rtcc.org.

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Philippine banana export to China blocked - Scarborough Standoff? –QQ??

The governments of China and the Philippines are meeting soon but not about the Scarborough shoal. The two governments will talk bananas.

Trade regulators of the two countries are poised to meet to avert a possible trade rift over the rejection by China of a shipload of bananas from the Philippines recently claiming they failed to meet quarantine tests.

The Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA), however, view the imposition of new requirements by China as a form of retaliation in view of the ongoing dispute over the Scarborough shoal.

As if to minimize the impact of the impending talks, Trade Undersecretary Adrian Cristobal Jr. said the matter is purely a sanitary and pythosanitary (SPS) issue but that the Philippines is nevertheless preparing as the quarantine may cover other Philippine fruits such as pineapples.

"Based on the reports we are getting, this is purely an SPS issue. Let's avoid speculation at this stage," Cristobal said.

He said the Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Agriculture, the Bureau of Plant Industry, the Chinese embassy in Manila and the Philippine embassy in Beijing are working closely with the industry to address the issue.

"Concrete steps are in place, including negotiations across the table among regulators of the two countries," Cristobal said.

According to Cristobal, China's Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) has informed the Philippine embassy in Beijing that 43 batches of bananas shipped in April were found with pests.

He said the DA is verifying such claim.

Although China has not suspended importation of bananas from the Philippines, it could do so in the future if it finds the prevalence of pests, Cristobal said.

The 43 batches at issue were shipped by a number of growers, leading to speculation that China is retaliating for the tension with the Philippines over the Scarborough shoal dispute.

Cristobal said both governments are now exchanging test results and, hopefully, they will arrive at some concrete findings this week.

He said the Philippines is preparing as the quarantine may cover other fruits like pineapples and papayas. The Philippines imports a good volume of vegetables from China.

The Philippines is the largest exporter of pineapples to China, shipping over $23 million worth of the fruit last year.

According to Cristobal, even prior to this issue, he has been closely working with the banana industry to come up with an action plan and strategy for market diversification.

At present, China is the second biggest market after Japan. Canada is a potential market which the Philippines is beginning to penetrate. Other markets being looked at are Russia, New Zealand and the Middle East.

Last year, the Philippines exported $366.68 million worth of bananas or 91 percent of its total production.

PBGEA said China recently imposed a tighter rule on incoming banana shipments from the Philippines for the first time in over decade since the growers have been exporting Cavendish bananas to China.

PBGEA said banana exporters from Mindanao have been using the most advance and high-end technology to process the fruits. There are 18 companies engaged in the exportation of bananas.

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AFP- Philippines 48 Fighter Jets, 6 Submarines, anti-ship cruise missile – Washington CNAS

WASHINGTON – The Philippines needs up to four squadrons (48) of upgraded Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter jets, more well-armed frigates and corvette-size, fast to surface combatant vessels and minesweepers and four to six mini submarines, possibly obtained from Russia, to build a credible defense force in the face of China's increasing belligerence in the South China Sea, the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) said.

This level of capability would far exceed current Philippine planning and finances and it would be in Washington's interest to make it easier for Manila to acquire excess US fighters, frigates and other weapons system and encourage other countries such as Japan and South Korea to help modernize the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), it said in an article "Defending the Philippines: Military modernization and the challenges ahead."

The CNAS article on Thursday written by Richard Fisher said the AFP's modernization program was estimated to cost about $1 billion over the course of President Aquino's six-year term – an amount that pales in comparison to China's 2012 official military budget of more than $100 billion.

A high-level Philippine delegation led by Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin was in Washington this week for discussions on each other's needs to ensure freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. 

A Hamilton-class frigate, now the flagship of the Philippine Navy, was turned over by the US last year and a second one is forthcoming. A third frigate is being sought.

The article lauded Aquino's determination to build up his country's military forces and said he has spent more than $395 million on AFP modernization since coming into office, compared with $51 million annually in the previous 15 years.

It said he is seeking to purchase a small number of F-16s supported by six to 12 Surface Attack Aircraft (SAA)/Lead-In Fighter Training (LIFT) aircraft such as the subsonic Italian Aermacchi T-346 or the supersonic Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) T/A-50, both of which could be modified to perform secondary combat missions.

A considerable investment in training, logistical support and basing will have to precede the aircrafts' service entry, estimated to be in 2016, the article said.

In 2011, the Philippine Navy (PN) restored a program to acquire two multi-role vessels in the form of 5,000-to-10,000-ton Landing Platform Deck (LPD) ships capable of supporting Marine amphibious operations supplying outposts in the Spratly Islands or conducting disaster relief operations.

The PN is also looking for a land-based anti-ship cruise missile like a version of the US Boeing AMG-84 Harpoon which has a range of 120 kms and could also be used by frigates and F-16s, said Fisher, a senior fellow with the International Assessment and Strategy Center, in his article.

"Finally, the PN would like to acquire a submarine by 2020, which would become its most ambitious and expensive program to date," the article said.

Given the economic and political stakes in ensuring that all East Asian countries maintain unimpeded access to the sea lanes near the Philippines, both those nations and the United States now share a real interest in the success of the AFP modernization.

The timing is also fortuitous, the article said, because "the United States now has a pragmatic partner in President Aquino who has proved his intention to invest in national defense and is willing to rise above nationalist resentments from the bases era."

The left wing Communist party dominant in the Philippines booted the biggest Americans Airbase in the Pacific in 1992.

USA real-time satellite surveillance assistance over maritime territory to the Philippines

The three-week standoff between the Philippines and China at Panatag Shoal (Scarborough Shoal) in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) has led the US to agree to provide the Philippines, its old ally, with satellite surveillance assistance, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Friday.

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in Washington announced the American assistance after a Philippine delegation conferred with him.

"In a meeting with the Philippine delegation at the Pentagon, Secretary Panetta agreed to intensify Philippine-US cooperation on real-time information-sharing to enable the Philippines to know what is happening in its maritime territory on a 24/7 basis and enforce its laws within its territory," a DFA statement said.

Panetta also gave assurance the US "will do everything possible to work with the Philippines."

The DFA also added that the US, one of the most advanced countries in intelligence gathering via surveillance satellites, will be sending PHL "real-time" information about territorial intrusions to assist the country in addressing and preventing similar incidents in the West Philippine Sea.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin had met this week with Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington.     

The US has declared that it will be aiding the Philippines once it is attacked to honor its 60-year-old defense treaty with Manila, but until then it shall not take sides.

It also pledged to increase its foreign military financing allocation for the Philippines to $30 million from just $15 million last year, said Assistant Secretary Andrew Shapiro, head of the State Department's Bureau for Political-Military Affairs.

"The State Department will explore additional creative funding streams for the Philippines," Shapiro added.

A second Hamilton-class cutter will also be transferred by the US to PHL for use in monitoring the West Philippine Sea and other maritime territories.

The standoff between the Philippines and China began on April 10 when Chinese fishermen were said to have intruded and poached at Panatag Shoal. The Philippine Navy tried to arrest them but two Chinese government ships intervened which started the standoff.

Both countries regard Panatag Shoal as their territory with the Philippines claiming it to be part of its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) which is within 200 nautical miles of the nearest Philippine land mass. China said the shoal, which it refers to as Huanyang Island, has been theirs since the Yuan dynasty in the 13th century.

However, the Philippines pronounces its claim based on the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) rule, which gives it the exclusive right to explore and develop Panatag Shoal, a part of its EEZ. UNCLOS was approved by both countries.

The shoal is a coral reef surrounding a lagoon located 124 nautical miles from the Philippines' Zambales province and 472 nautical miles from China's Hainan province.

Composed of more than 200 islands, rocks, reefs and coral outcrops, West Philippine Sea has always been a place of uneasy conflict where the Philippines, China, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam are all claiming part of it. The sea is home to immeasurable natural resources

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