Duterte’s statement on Paris Agreement

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The Philippine Movement for Climate Justice, the largest climate justice group in the Philippines supports President Duterte’s statement that rich countries must face up to the climate crisis they have caused.

“The president is actually invoking historical responsibility enshrined in United Nations Climate Change Convention,” argues Mr. Ian Rivera, the National Coordinator of Philippine Movement for Climate Justice.

Mr. Rivera emphasized that the rich countries led by the US are responsible for the climate crisis. However, they are not honoring their obligations that resulted to several years of stalemate without global consensus of keeping low the temperature rise.

“The climate crisis has worsened to unprecedented level due to dilly dallying of rich countries. In fact, the Paris Agreement was long overdue.

However, it is difficult now to do away with this global consensus. It will mean going back to several decades of climate negotiations with very little time left before climate catastrophe”, Mr. Rivera asserted.

Mr. Rivera had been into several Conference of Parties (COP) organized under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change where many governments negotiate about the future of the planet.

The Philippines championed the inclusion of limiting average temperature rise below 1.5 centigrade in the last Paris Conference of Parties.