PH Earth Day 2021: Commitment to protect the environment

This year’s Earth Day celebration is marked by the Philippines’ first Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), approved by President Duterte, which sets a 75 percent greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction and avoidance by 2030, to fulfill the country’s commitment to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

Over the 2020-2030 decade, the country seeks to modernize by employing a low carbon and resilient development strategy in key sectors: Agriculture, waste, industry, transport and energy. The baseline is the country’s projected cumulative economywide emission of 3,340.3 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent gases for the same period.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III invoked the principle of climate justice. As chairman designate of the Climate Change Commission, which facilitated a multi-sectoral NDC formulation process, he affirmed that the NDC would be the country’s principal tool to “mitigate the climate crisis and make our economy more resilient and our growth sustainable.”