Update on Conference of Parties 21 in Paris
Distinguished guests, good afternoon to everyone. Bon jour.
It is a great pleasure to be with all of you today for this 1st Philippine Environment Summit. I thank you for this opportunity that is given to me to share with you some insights about the 21st Climate Conference, also called as COP21, which took place in Paris last December.
Almost a year ago, in February 2015, we started our preparation for COP 21 here in Manila. We embarked “On The Road to COP21.” Indeed, when President Hollande made a state visit to the Philippines, it was the first-ever state visit by a French President to the Philippines. So, this was a very important visit for our two countries. But more than that, it was a very important visit because we have put an eye on the agenda with this issue on climate change: the fight against climate change, the preparation of COP21, the collaboration of our two countries in these common tasks of preparing COP21 in order to achieve a success there.
So last year, 27th of February 2015, was the very day when both presidents, President Hollande and President Aquino, jointly launched the “Manila Call to Action on Climate Change”. This call was a call for the mobilization of the international community to fight against climate change. It was a call also for international solidarity in this fight. Solidarity, indeed, was the core of what we tried to do during COP21 in order to secure an agreement.
Since this visit on February 2015, the French embassy here in the Philippines has worked side-by-side with many stakeholders in the Philippines – government agencies like the Climate Change Commission (CCC), the National Youth Commission (NYC), also the academe, civil society, media, and the private sector to ensure that we will be collectively prepared to help and contribute to the success of COP21. So during last year we had high- level meetings. We organized conferences and events such as movie screenings, even a bike ride on the streets of Intramuros and a concert to raise awareness on this social climate conference.
So now I am standing in front of you, today. I am very honored to present the result of this conference – what the world has achieved in the fight against climate change. As you all know, we were able to reach our goal, which was to secure an agreement at Paris in December – an international agreement both ambitious and universal and somehow legally binding. This goal was a difficult one to reach. When we opened COP21, we were not sure that we would be able to make it but of course, we all knew, both the French presidency even the delegation, we all knew, what was at stake and that we had to secure this agreement. In spite the difficulties, the divergent interests that we had to overcome in our discussions, we had to do it. We all know that the fight against climate change is for us to tackle now. It is now that we have to act. We cannot defer anymore, we all know that.
So this is why the Paris Agreement has been regarded as historic by many. This is one of the few examples indeed where the use of that word ‘historic’ seems appropriate. The participation of more than 150 heads of state and government, among them was, of course, his Excellency President Aquino, to the opening of the conference on November 30th, the commitment of thousands of cities, companies and NGOs in the Lima Paris Action Plan and the adaption at the end of the conference on December 12 of the Paris Agreement, is indeed historic.
For the first time ever, this Agreement has brought all nations to work on a common cause based on their past and future responsibilities on this issue of climate change. There was never-ever an international agreement on the fight against climate change in the history of humankind; but, now we have one. And this one is the step that we will use to build a better future. So we can really say that the adoption of the Paris Agreement was an unprecedented political victory and it will present a turning point towards low carbon resilient development. “This is a turning point”, those were the words of the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
The Paris Agreement offers the best possible balance. At this stage, it prepares for the future and it offers solutions for the present. It is universal, ambitious, fair and legally binding. A distinction between developed and developing countries, based on their capabilities to commit, was the most apparent in each of the key stages in the negotiations. Providing the necessary finances, an approach of receptiveness and determined compromise helped strike the right balance between ambitions, universality and solidarity.
The Paris Agreement is an ambitious agreement. It establishes the limits, the increased earth’s temperatures of well below 2 degrees Celsius (2oC) by the end of this century, and pursuing efforts to even limit it to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius (1.5oC) which is one of the main objectives of the Philippine delegation. And this was taken into consideration. The French Presidency made what was necessary to have it put into the agreement. So the official target is still 2oC because this is the most reasonable compromise we could get. But at the same time, we wrote down in the agreement that we have to keep in mind that if we can and we have to, we can do better and limit it to 1.5oC. So we will first concretely try to reach this 2oC target; keeping in mind that we can do better. In concrete terms this ambition takes the form of a global emissions road map, the peaking of emissions as soon as possible, and emissions’ neutrality second half of this century.
The Paris Agreement is also a differentiated agreement. For the first time, all countries are committing to a universal agreement reflecting the commitments of developed countries to reduce their emissions and acknowledging the gradual convergence of developing countries towards such a reduction taking into account respective national circumstances and capabilities. So everyone must make an effort at its own pace based on constraints and capacities.
It is also an inclusive agreement. The Agreement affirms the obligations to support developing countries in their efforts to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change. The accompanying decision extends the commitment of one hundred billion dollars ($100B) per year until 2025 which will then serve as a basis for more ambitious financial targets.
For the first time, and thanks to the efforts of the Philippine Negotiation team, adaptation to the effects of climate change was treated with equal importance as the
reduction of the greenhouse emissions (GHG). So the agreement sets an overall objective for adaptation and affirms the need to rebalance finances especially public funds and ground-based resources. The issue of loss and damage is formally recognized and an appropriate framework is introduced. This loss and damage mechanism compels countries with higher carbon emissions to compensate the more vulnerable countries, essentially those who have lost and been damaged most by the offense of climate change.
Lastly, the agreement establishes and enhances framework for transparency that is universal and flexible so as to ensure effectiveness over time and build confidence between nations. It will help drive the progress of each country on mitigation, adaptation and support while taking into account the respective capabilities of each country. Consequently, we now have an agreement on the climate suitable for all parties, for all countries, for vulnerable islands to oil producers, from emerging economies and to the least developed countries. Each of them can identify themselves in the Paris Agreement and this is the result in which we, as precedent of the COP, are most proud of.
So what are the next steps now? Basically, 2015 was a year of negotiation and a year of decision but 2016 will be the year for action. After a formal signing ceremony on the 22nd of April this year in New York, the agreement will be open for ratification by states. It will enter into force after ratification by 55 countries representing at least 55% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. Implementation of the agreement will lead to the creation of mechanisms for raising ambition over time, providing financial support, and tracking support and efforts. Every country will have to submit a national contribution every 5 years. For this COP21, each country was asked to submit a national contribution on what it wanted to achieve in order to reduce its GHG emissions. And as you know the Philippines submitted a national contribution that foresees that the country will reduce its GHG emissions by 70% by 2030, if financial support is provided. This national contribution will have to be updated every five (5) years and it will be the same for every country. But what is important there is that those contributions will increase ambitiously each time. And this will start in 2023. This will be the first time we review those contributions.
Regarding the finances, the Agreement establishes an obligation for the developed countries to provide and mobilize finances based on the principles of progression. It also recognizes that the public funds should play a significant role in climate fights. The Agreement establishes mechanisms to facilitate implementation and promote compliance. It will support states from facilitation rather than definitive point of view in implementation and foster national commitments. Its rules and procedures will be established in the next few years so that it can start operating by 2020, when the agreement comes into force.
The Agreement reached in Paris last December sends a strong signal for businesses, investors, local governments and citizens, the signal that they are waiting for in order to strengthen their own commitments. It will speed up the process, the directing of financial flows from high emitting sectors, especially the fossil fuel industry, towards a low carbon economy. And indeed the first hours and days following the securing of the agreement in Paris have already showed the first tranche of investments being re-directed in this sense. We are seeing, for example, the rates of clean energy investments rising while those in fossil fuels has been stagnating and even falling.
The Agreement will also provide developing countries with the resources they need to extend access to renewable energy sources, curve deforestation and implement
sustainable agriculture. It will also generate a momentum needed to continue the ecological and energy transition in developed countries and create millions of green jobs. It will enable people everywhere on earth to breathe cleaner air, gain access to decent quality of life and see their fundamental rights respected. It will help reduce risks and complaints linked to either competition for non-renewable resources like water, for example, or to climate impacts that have not been preventive or sufficiently well managed.
So the Paris Agreement is the beginning of a new era of collective sharing for the preservation of our planet. It also needs to exist and be fully implemented. It needs the involvement from all of us: from developed and developing countries, from civil society to private sector, to the government, to take a united stand and do our part for the future of our planet. Of course the Paris Agreement will not solve everything, but going back to what I said earlier, we have to see it for what it is – a turning point.
This is the first ever on our ladder for a better future. Before this step, we didn’t have one. This is our first time to have an international agreement and this very result has been so difficult to achieve. Through the years we have had many international conferences that failed, but we knew that we could not fail in Paris. So we have an Agreement and we have to, like I said earlier, take it for what it is.
This is the framework that we need to enable us to be more efficient in our common fight against climate change. So now we have this framework and mechanisms that are in the Agreement, which are progressive. This is indeed the way we wanted it to be. It is a progressive fight that we have to achieve together and everything will be implemented progressively. But it will require that we remain mobilized so that we as individuals, citizens, in every country, maintain pressure on governance, on the private sector and on ourselves. We keep being mobilized and we do what is necessary to implement the Agreement so that we are forced to do what has been decided in Paris so that we indeed, reduce our GHG emissions. We transform our economies so that they are low carbon and that allows us to have better quality of life.
This is what is at stake. The Paris Agreement is the first step and for it to be implemented or not, for it to lead to the next step onward, is up to us. And thinking about that, we should think that we can be proud of this outcome. But the most difficult is still to be done and we still have a lot of efforts to do. We should bear in mind that if we have to do that, it is not for ourselves but it is for the youth. It is for the future generations so that we can give them a better planet than what it is now.
In order to achieve this, we need a tool. This tool is the Paris Agreement that was secured last December 12, 2015 in Paris. But we have to do what is necessary to have it implemented and this is where we have to act collectively now. In the year to come, here in the Philippines, the French embassy will continue to work closely with its partners, especially the Climate Change Commission and National Youth Commission so we can prioritize this agreement and try to raise awareness about what can be done collectively and individually to help ensure that it is implemented.
In this regard I would just like to say that you can count on us. The French Embassy here in the Philippines promises to remain faithful to that spirit that has united the Philippines and France on this issue since last year and even before. We will remain friends, close friends that collaborated on this issue with this fight against climate change.
It is a fight which concerns both of our countries and so collectively, we will manage to ensure that the Agreement is implemented and that we move towards a better future.
And lastly I would like to say thank you very much for listening to me today. I hope that this was interesting to you and please be sure that we at the French Embassy are at your disposal for any question or action that you may want us to join or participate in.
Thank you very much.
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