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MANILA, Philippines?The Philippines will be conducting consultations with concerned local sectors before officially associating itself with the controversial Copenhagen Accord.
Presidential adviser on climate change Heherson Alvarez said in a statement released Tuesday that he has set consultations with members of the Catholic Bishops? Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and the Department of Agriculture (DA) on February 10.
Alvarez said he will also be meeting with the Environmental Educators Network of the Philippines, an association of environmental practitioners in the academe, at the Ateneo de Davao University in Davao City on February 17.
He said similar consultations will be conducted in various parts of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
Alvarez, who is also vice chairman of the newly-created Climate Change Commission, said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has called for a meeting of the Commission last February 5, where a ?unanimous decision on the issue was reached by the Commissioners.?
?In compliance with the instructions of the Climate Change Commission, chaired by the President? the Philippines is still in the process of internal consultations with respect to the possibility of its association with the Copenhagen Accord,? read the official letter of the Philippines which was immediately sent to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Bonn, Germany.
?With these consultations, we hope to identify our NAMAs (nationally-appropriate mitigation actions), which is our share in reducing carbon emissions. We want to make sure that any mitigation we do will not be at the expense of our developing economy,? Alvarez said.
On February 8, a total of 91 countries, including the United States, China, Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore and the European Union, have either endorsed, supported or associated themselves with the Copenhagen Accord, described as a non-legally binding political document, that will pursue, in the interim, international action on climate change before COP-16 in Mexico this December.
The Copenhagen Accord calls on developed countries to provide $30 billion in new, additional funding for developing countries from 2010-2012, and $100 billion a year by 2020 from a variety of sources.
But the Accord drew sharp criticisms from developing countries and NGOs for being non-binding and with vague targets for curbing greenhouse gas emissions.
