(Eagle News) — Senator Loren Legarda hailed on Wednesday President Rodrigo Duterte’s signing of the Paris Agreement, calling the day of his signing “a great day for..climate warriors.”
Legarda, chair of the Senate Committee on Climate Change, made the statement a day after Duterte signed the Paris Agreement on Climate Change that compels ratifying countries to take steps to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
The statement was issued after Legarda received the Instrument of Ratification for the Paris Agreement from Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Meynard Guevarra.
“(The day of signing) is a great day for Mother Earth, for the climate warriors who fought hard for this agreement, for the climate refugees and the vulnerable Filipinos who bear the brunt of climate change impacts, for the entire nation and all the Filipino people,” the senator, who was also recognized as a United Nations Global Champion for Resilience at the Paris UN Climate Conference in 2015, said.
The signing of the agreement by Duterte–who had previously announced he would not honor the deal pushed by his predecessor, former President Benigno Aquino III—-means the country is a step away from full ratification.
The agreement only needs the concurrence of the Senate before it finally becomes a treaty.
“Once we fully ratify, we become part of the succeeding meetings about the Paris Agreement. It is to our advantage that we are in the talks so we can converge with our fellow vulnerable nations on how we should move forward and compel big (greenhouse gas) emitters to do their fair share,” she said.
“Our ratification will send a strong signal of our continuing commitment to work with the rest of the world in ensuring the survival of this generation and the generations to come, and the ability of the Earth to sustain life,” Legarda added.
The Paris Agreement was first signed by over a hundred countries on April 22, 2016.
Although it came into effect on November 4, 2016, the Philippines only sat as an observer in the ceremonial first meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement or the CMA during the 2016 climate negotiations in Marrakech, Morocco as the country had not yet ratified the agreement.