Ever since I became an environmentalist thirty years ago and today, I felt excited and inspired by the message of assurance given to international allies at the 23rd United Nations Climate Change (COP23) Conference in Bonn, Germany, by Sen. Loren Legarda, head of the Philippine delegations.
She assured the international climate allies that the Philippines’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) would be compatible with the 1.5-degree Celsius climate goal as prescribed in the 2015 Paris Agreement. The veteran solon, UN-awardee, also expressed support for the notion that
green innovative facilities could stimulate economic growth for the Philippines.
Reporting on said climate change confab, PDI Jocellyn R. Uy (@mj uyINQ) quoted Legarda as saying: “Rest assured that I shall do everything in my power to ensure that the Philippines’ NDC will soon be rated 1.5 C-compatible as well, as I assume all my counterparts in other [climate vulnerable
countries] are doing as well.”
The senator also delivered a keynote speech late on Monday (11/13/17) night at the side event, “Innovative Climate Finance Strategies and nstruments by and For Climate Vulnerable Countries” organized by the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF). In her speech, she cited the latest analysis of Climate
Action Tracker showing that only Morocco and Gambia has NDCs compatible with 1.5 C, and four out of 5 countries that have 2 C-compatible climate action plans are also members of the CVF, Uy added.
These countries are Bhutan, Costa Rica, Ethiopia and the Philippines, Legarda added. The CVF is an international alliance of countries highly vulnerable to a warming planet. The 196-nation Paris Agreement calls for capping global warming at 2 C below preindustrial levels. The Philippines earlier
pledged a 70-percent cut in carbon emissions by 2030, Uy reported further.
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The month-long chronologically arranged trivia is continued:
November 14 –Robert Fulton born 1765; Claude Monet born 1840; Jawaharlal Neru born 1889; Sir Frederick Grant Banting born 1891; and Aaron Copland born 1900;
November 15 –William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, born 1708; Georgia O’Keefle born 1887; Draft of Articles of Confederation adopted by Continental ongress, 1777;
November 16 –Oklahoma became the 46th state, 1907; U.S. U.S. officially recognized the Soviet Union, 1933; November 17 –Congress first met in Washington, D.D., 1800; Suez Canal opened, 1869;
November 18 – Standard time began in U.S., 1883; Murder of five Americans in Jonestown, Guyana, followed by mass suicides and murders of more than 900 members of Jim Jone’s People’s Temple, 1978; and Independence Day in Morocco;
November 19 — Ferdinand de Lesseps born 1805; James A. Garfield born 1831; Abraham Lincoln delivered Gettysburg Address, 1863; Prince of Monaco Holiday in Monaco;
November 20 – Sir Wilfrid Laurier born 1841; Robert F. Kennedy born 1925; Nuremberg Trials, trying Nazi offenders for crimes against humanity, began, 1945;
November 21 – Voltaire born 1694; William Beaumont born 1785; Mayflower Compact signed, 1620; North Carolina ratified the Constitution, 1789;
November 22 – George Eliot born 1819; Charles de Gaulle born 1890; President John F. Kennedy assassinated in Dallas, Texas, 1963; and Independence Day in Lebanon. (Source: The New Book of Knowledge, Vol. 14, (N).
