This year climate conference is held in Copenhagen, Denmark and of course the Philippines will participate in this conference just a couple of days ago our President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo arrived in Copenhagen and deliver her speech in the said conference.
Here is the full text of Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo speech
The Philippines looks upon these negotiations in Copenhagen with a critical sense of urgency. The average world per capita CO2 equivalent emission is 6 tons and must be brought down to 3 tons to stabilize at 450 ppm in 2050. The Philippines is already doing better than that. Our emissions are only 1.6 tons per capita and we are committed to further deviate from our business-as-usual growth path.
Yet, though our country has a good carbon footprint, we are disproportionately vulnerable to the devastation of Mother Nature, accelerated by the mistreatment of the fragile environment by human beings all over the world. This is due in large part to the fact that we are an archipelago of over 7,000 islands with the majority of our people living in low-lying areas that are prone to climate hazards.
The UN reports that the Philippines is one of the top 12 countries at the greatest risk from climate change. We top the list of nations most in danger of facing more frequent and more intense storms as the impact of climate change intensifies.
Tropical storms of historic scale have inflicted devastation and a tragic loss of lives upon our country. Two recent typhoons cost our people $4 billion or 2.7% of our GDP. Our major food regions lost 8 to 10 percent of their GDP because over 600,000 hectares of farmlands were destroyed, while the industrial areas lost 6 to 8 percent.
These same typhoons affected more than 9 million people and killed more than 900. Over 200,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. Our nation was already struggling against the headwinds of global economic storm when we were forced to confront these natural disasters.
Thank God that we pulled together as a nation. We have begun to rebuild the affected areas of our country. We thank our international friends and development partners who assisted us in our moment of need over the past few months.
We come to Copenhagen in partnership with other nations to find a way to meet the harsh impacts of climate change and avert a global climate crisis. It is time to harmonize economic development with environmental protection in a new global order where they are not mutually exclusive, but synonymous. It is time all countries of the world owned up to our collective responsibilities. Solving this problem will certainly take years but we need to start the process now.
We cannot afford to leave Copenhagen without a deal, based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. For an equitable outcome, developed countries need to lead in reducing emissions.
A robust financial mechanism must also be established to meet the costs of adaptation for developing countries and for effective development and transfer of technologies. We applaud Secretary Clinton's groundbreaking announcement that the United States is prepared to work with other countries toward a goal of jointly mobilizing $100 billion a year by 2020 to address the climate change needs of developing countries. It is essential that this augmentation of global funds should include the replenishment of existing global grant facilities.
Humans started the problem of climate change. Humans can certainly solve it. Thank you.
I am hoping of a good result in this conference may the humanity find a way to solve the climate change issue
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