PH climate policies compatible for a 2°C global temperature increase – report

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 13) — The Philippines' current climate policies are compatible with plans to limit global warming to 2° Celsius -- 0.5° short of its goal under a climate deal signed between 196 countries, a report released Wednesday showed.

An assessment by non-government organization Climate Action Tracker released Wednesday tracked policy movements made by 32 governments since the landmark Paris Agreement of 2015.

The report said the Philippines has not implemented policy developments which "significantly impact emissions" in the last three years.

"Implementation of renewable energy targets have been lagging and continuous investment in coal might result in considerable stranded assets in the future," the report said.

It added, however, that the Philippines' application of a coal tax including a floor of 30 percent for renewable energy sources are positive developments.

However, on the global scale, current climate change commitments would actually warm the earth by 3° Celsius by 2100, twice the 1.5° Celsius limit of the Paris accord.

"Basically no big change on the global level, so that means the gap is still huge. We need to reduce emissions significantly and all countries would basically need to raise their ambitions now, and they can," Niklas Höhne of the New Climate Institute, one of the proponents of the report, said.

The report showed that countries which have reduced their carbon emissions include Argentina, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, the European Union, and India -- which represent a fifth of global emissions.

Meanwhile, countries with either worsening emissions or climate policies include Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States. The report said the following countries cover around a fourth of global emissions.

The report is congruent with the United Nations' Emissions Gap Report which showed that nations are failing to meet their commitments to lower their emissions of carbon dioxide -- a greenhouse gas that contributes to warming the planet.

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The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change earlier warned of stronger storms and weather-related disasters should the world breach the 1.5° Celsius cap.

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