PH eyes 70% carbon emissions cut – Malacañang

The Philippines aims to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 70 percent by 2030 under a plan submitted to the United Nations.

Although the informal deadline for submission of the climate plan was October 1 India sought permission to announce the plan on October 2 instead.

As of Thursday, 136 nations have submitted their INDCs to the UNFCCC.

Climate Change Commission Secretary Lucille Sering said that under its INDC, the Philippines committed to reduce its carbon emissions (CO2) by 70 percent by 2030, which will come from the energy, transport, waste, forestry and industry sectors.

Aquino is the chair of the National Climate Change Commission.

India in its INDC will also give a detailed account of its efforts under various existing climate change action plan missions to voluntarily fulfill its pre-2020 commitment to fight climate change during the period when such actions are mandatory only for rich industrialized nations -historical polluters like the USA, Japan, Australia and European Union (EU) countries. This includes details regarding their plan of action in their individual capacity to check the rise of global warming in order to fight climate change as per a post-2020 agreement.

India is the fourth largest GHG emitter at present after China, United States and European Union, but it ranks 120th in terms of per-capita emission.

To sum it up, India’s climate action plan is based on five key elements.

Sering clarified that the commitments are conditional, meaning they can only be pursued if the climate change negotiations in Paris during the end of the year would lead to financial resources and the facilitation of technology transfer.

Sering said the Philippines will update its INDC when more data becomes available.