UN on RP disasters: Worst yet to come

By Philip Tubeza
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:04:00 10/28/2009

Filed Under: Weather, Disasters (general), Climate Change,Flood, Ondoy, Pepeng, Environmental Issues

MANILA, Philippines—Storms worse than “Ondoy” and “Pepeng” will hit the Philippines in the coming years, but the country is one of the least prepared nations in Southeast Asia to cope with natural disasters, a United Nations official warned Tuesday.

Jerry Velasquez, senior regional coordinator of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) agency, said the Philippines was even worse than military-ruled Burma (Myanmar) in coping with natural calamities.

Saying the worst calamities were yet to come, Velasquez stressed: “The period of talking is now over—the time for action has begun.”

Velasquez, a Filipino, spoke at a hearing of the Senate committee on climate change, chaired by Sen. Loren Legarda, held at Barangay Nangka in Marikina City, one of the areas worst hit by floods triggered by Tropical Storm Ondoy (international codename: Ketsana) last month.

Painting a grim scenario, the UN official cited studies that projected a massive destruction of Philippine rice crops in a little over a decade owing to climate change, and severe flooding in Metro Manila affecting 2.5 million people by the year 2080.

Velasquez said the Philippines ranked 12th among 200 countries at risk from tropical cyclones, floods, earthquakes and landslides.

Hot spot

An April 2009 UN study found that, “in coping capacity to disasters,” the Philippines ranks seventh among the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), just behind Laos, Malaysia and Burma, Velasquez said.

“The Philippines is one of the very hot spots for climate change. What happened during Ondoy and Pepeng was not the worst. The worst is still to come,” he added.

Also prone to natural disasters, Burma suffered one of the worst natural disasters in living memory when cyclone Nargis slammed it in May 2008, killing 10,000 people in one town alone. UN officials estimated over 100,000 perished altogether in the cyclone, while 2.4 million people were affected.

Velasquez said coping capacity referred to a country’s capacity for hazard evaluation, structural defenses, early warning, emergency response, insurance and disaster funds, and reconstruction and rehabilitation planning.

Yet among the ASEAN countries, the Philippines was the last to ratify the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response, Velasquez said.

“Indonesia copied from the Philippines in developing its disaster risk management legislation (but) that country was able to get its legislation adopted way back 2007, while the Philippines is yet to pass its own bill in Congress,” he said.

Deadly trio

Velasquez cited a UNISDR global assessment report on disaster risk reduction, which noted that Japan had 22.5 million people exposed to typhoons annually, compared to just 16 million people in the Philippines.

“However, the estimated annual death toll from cyclones in the Philippines is almost 17 times greater than that of Japan,” he said.

He said the study found that the “deadly trio” that worsen natural disasters were “poor urban government, unstable rural livelihood, and ecosystem decline.”

“So it’s not God who is doing it. It’s man who is at fault,” Velasquez said.

Velasquez said that one study showed that the Philippines had a “medium adaptive capacity” to climate change, “together with Indonesia and just above Cambodia and (Laos).”

“Vietnam, although faced with high threats of climate hazards, has high levels (of) coping and adaptive capacities, lowering considerably its risks to climate-related disasters,” Velasquez said.

Metro Manila vulnerable

Velasquez said a January 2009 study funded by Canada and Sweden found that among ASEAN countries, “the Philippines is a hot spot for cyclones, landslides, floods and droughts.”

“In fact, according to this study’s ‘multiple climate hazard index,’ the Philippines received a rank of 0.6 to 1.0, the highest among all countries in the ASEAN,” Velasquez said.

“The same study listed the most vulnerable provinces or districts in Southeast Asia, and found that the National Capital region ranks 7th among all cities in the ASEAN, with the Cordilleras 27th and Central Luzon 30th,” he said.

Velasquez urged the Philippines to improve its disaster-coping capability.

“A single event cannot be attributed to climate change because the climate system is in constant state of flux and has always exhibited natural fluctuations and extreme conditions,” Velasquez said.

He said extreme weather events like Ondoy and Pepeng were consistent with the trend that a group of renowned scientists belonging to the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had identified.

“According to the IPCC, there is a 90 percent chance that things will get worse in the future,” he added.

Vulnerable to floods

Velasquez said the IPCC projected there would be an “increase in intense precipitation events” (or rainfall) and “an increase of 20 percent in tropical cyclone intensity and the amplification in storm surge heights, resulting in an enhanced risk of coastal disasters.”

“Philippine climate scenarios predict an increase in temperature for the Philippines up to 1.8 C by 2020, up to 2.4 C by 2050 and up to 3.6 C by 2080,” he said.

“Similar scenarios also predict that by 2050, there will be up to 20 percent decrease in precipitation for the Philippines for the months of December, January and February, and up to 16 percent increase in precipitation in the months of June, July, and August,” he added.

Velasquez said environmentalists had predicted that a 100-centimeter rise in sea-level—to be reached by 2080 under one of IPCC’s scenarios—would lead to over 5,000 hectares of the Manila Bay area being “regularly inundated, affecting 2.5 million people.”

Sea levels up by 40 cm

He said the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Administration (PAGASA) already noted that sea levels had risen by 40 centimeters (cm) in Manila and by 20 cm in Davao and Legazpi.

The Asian Development Bank has also warned that rice production in the country could drop by 50 to 70 percent as early as 2020 due to increasing temperatures, Velasquez said.

“A recent Oxfam study found that sea level rise, floods that damage fish farms, and the increased acidification of the oceans could reduce by 90 percent farmed fish yield by 2050,” he said.

Breathless anticipation

Velasquez said that with the signing into law of the Philippine Climate Change Act of 2009, “hopes are high that the new law’s focus on strong government-wide coordination, high-level leadership, links to science, and local level action, will be necessary ingredients to ensure immediate, comprehensive and sustained action by the Philippines in the face of this climate crisis.”

“It is one of the most comprehensive and the most integrated legislation so far in the region. We now wait with breathless anticipation,” he said. With reports from Inquirer Research

WWF-Philippines Partner's Night '09

T'was the 19th of October when WWF-Philippines had once again celebrated Partner's Night '09 in The Gallery, Greenbelt 5. An assorted pool of environmental fighters and agents of change, we were all vanguards of a living planet, strengthening relationships to celebrate another journey that was and will be towards conservation.

Take a look at our photos:



WWF with the Panda



WWF Registration Table



Ambassador Kristie Kenney greeted by Lory Tan, CEO


Guests awaiting program commencement.


Chairman Vince Perez, WWF-International Director-General Jim Leape US Ambassador Kristie Kenney, Jaime Ayala


Jim Leape's speech.


WWF Staff enjoying the night.

Photo opportunity with Jim Leape.

Photo Opportunity with Vince Perez.


Two agents of change. :)


Having a good laugh under the Panda.

WWF-Philippines with Jim Leape.


While we ate, drank, laughed and spoke- nature to our heart's content, the night ended. We continue to devote our every energy towards a global effort, that remains anything but daunting. As we do this, we can only hope that more may work to build a sustainable world.

Cheers to the next Partner's Night!

Rapid Ice Loss Found In Survey Supports Trend to Summer Ice Free Arctic within Decade

London, UK - New data, released today by the Catlin Arctic Survey and WWF, provides further evidence of thinning Arctic Ocean sea ice, supporting the emerging thinking that the Ocean will be largely ice-free in summer within a decade.

The Catlin Arctic Survey, completed earlier this year, provides the latest ice thickness record, drawn from the only survey capturing surface measurements in the last winter and spring.

The data collected by manual drilling and observations on a 450 kilometre route across the northern part of the Beaufort Sea suggests the survey area is comprised almost exclusively of first year ice.


This is a significant finding because the region has traditionally contained older, thicker multi-year ice. The average thickness of the ice-floes measured 1.8 metres, a depth considered too thin to survive the next summer’s ice melt.

The findings were analysed by the Polar Ocean Physics Group at the University of Cambridge, led by Professor Peter Wadhams, one of the world’s leading experts on sea ice cover in the North Pole region.

“With a larger part of the region now first year ice, it is clearly more vulnerable,” said Professor Wadhams. “The area is now more likely to become open water each summer, bringing forward the potential date when the summer sea ice will be completely gone.

“The Catlin Arctic Survey data supports the new consensus view, based on seasonal variation of ice extent and thickness, changes in temperatures, winds and especially ice composition, that the Arctic will be ice-free in summer within about 20 years, and that much of the decrease will be happening within 10 years.
“That means you’ll be able to treat the Arctic as if it were essentially an open sea in the summer and have transport across the Arctic Ocean.”

According to the scientists who have studied the data, the technique used by the explorers to take measurements on the surface of the ice has the potential to help ice modellers to refine predictions about the future survival or decline of the ice.

“This is the kind of scientific work we always wanted to support by getting to places in the Arctic which are otherwise nearly impossible to reach for research purposes,” said Expedition leader Pen Hadow.
“It’s what modern exploration should be doing. Our on-the-ice techniques are helping scientists to understand better what is going on in this fragile ecosystem.”

The results of the analysis of more than 6000 measurements and observations collected by the survey in 73 days on the ice were unveiled today in London with warnings that rapid climate change in the Arctic risked the release of vast quantities of carbon stored in hydrates on the Arctic seabed or in frozen tundra soils.

“The arctic sea ice holds a central position in our Earth’s climate system. Take it out of the equation and we are left with a dramatically warmer world,” said Dr. Martin Sommerkorn from the WWF International Arctic Programme, which was a partner in the survey.

“Such a loss of Arctic sea ice cover has recently been assessed to set in motion powerful climate feedbacks which will have an impact far beyond the Arctic itself – self perpetuating cycles, amplifying and accelerating the consequences of global warming. This could lead to flooding affecting one quarter of the world’s population, substantial increases in greenhouse gas emissions from massive carbon pools, and extreme global weather changes."

“Today’s findings provide yet another urgent call for action to world leaders ahead of the UN climate summit in Copenhagen this December to rapidly and effectively curb global greenhouse gas emissions, with rich countries committing to reduce emissions by 40% by 2020.”

Trash Course: 20 steps to be a planeteer

(1^st of 2 parts)

Protecting the environment doesn’t have to equate to being a tree-hugging activist. The first and harder step is committing to seemingly small things. Here are ten tips to reduce your daily waste:

1. Paper or plastic? One ton of paper bags is equivalent to 17 trees and generates five times as much solid waste as plastic. One ton of plastic bags consumes 11 barrels of crude oil and takes 1000 years to decompose. The answer: neither - bring your own!

You can carry an eco-bag or just put your purchase in your own bag. While you’re at it, tell the cashier that you don’t need a plastic bag ‘cause you want to save the world. Trust us, it’ll make her smile.

2. Bring your own water bottle! 2.7 million tons of plastic are used for bottled water annually, about 90% of which end up in landfills. An average mineral water bottle costs about P20. If you stop buying one or two bottles a day, you can save up to P1120 a month!

3. Need to reload? Go to your nearest e-load or autoload suki! Those prepaid cards are made from and individually wrapped in plastic.

4. Go paperless. Download the e-book version of your textbooks. Ask your boss or professor if you can e-mail your assignments.

5. Print smart. If you must print, print on both sides or on used paper. Recycling one ton of office paper saves almost six tons of CO_2.

6. Eliminate phantom drain: Believe your charger when it says BATTERY FULL - it does not lie. Plugged chargers still consume energy.

7. Give me the “green” light: Replace those incandescent bulbs into Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs (CFLs). They may cost a bit more, but think long-term: CFLs consume ¼ of the electricity and last several years longer. Plus, they look like vanilla swirl ice cream!

8. Use tumblers! When you’re going to meet your friends for coffee, hand the barista your own tumbler or ask for your drink in a mug. Starbucks Philippines even gives a P5 discount for those who bring their own!

9. Learn to love refillables! When buying pens and highlighters, choose those that are refillable, like Stabilo. That way, when the ink runs out, you no longer have to buy new ones. Just walk to your nearest bookstore and ask for a refill.

10. Tara na, biyahe tayo! Have you trekked the Banaue Rice Terraces, chased after whale sharks in Donsol, and viewed the Chocolate Hills of Bohol? Explore your country’s natural resources to remind yourself what it is you are saving. After all, you can only protect what you love, and love what you experience.

Remember: we can’t advocate for big changes if we can’t do the little ones. Now, Planteer-in-Training, go take these little steps that will eventually become big leaps!

Pessimism Abounds as Copenhagen Climate Talks Near

The Copenhagen climate talks, to be held in December, were originally conceived as the final milestone on the road to a global emissions reduction agreement. Now, though, few expect the summit to produce a pact. SPIEGEL ONLINE spoke with Sweden's climate change envoy about the remaining hurdles.

These days, when it comes to the climate talks set for Copenhagen in December, optimism is in short supply. Far from resulting in a deal to succeed the expiring Kyoto Protocols, many now fear that the outcome of Copenhagen talks will be meager indeed.

"A fully fledged new international treaty under the (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change -- UNFCCC) -- I don't think that is going to happen," Yvo de Boer, head of the UNFCC told the Financial Times on Tuesday. "If you look at the limited amount of time remaining to Copenhagen, it's clear."

The problems facing the global community when it comes to efforts at shaping an agreement to combat climate change are myriad. Two issues, however, have emerged as the greatest stumbling blocks. Firstly, despite President Barack Obama's commitments to make CO2 emissions reductions a priority of his presidency, the US has yet to pass binding legislation. A bill continues to languish in the Senate and is unlikely to be passed before the end of the year. And without clarity from the US, many other countries are wary of accepting binding reduction targets.

Secondly, developing nations are going to need a huge amount of financial assistance in order to both adapt to climate change and cut their own emissions. As yet, where that financial aid is going to come from remains unclear. But it is highly likely the European Union will be asked to contribute -- and there is little consensus on how to divide the bill for the up to €15 billion the member states might owe. On Tuesday, a meeting of European Union finance ministers made little progress on the issue with many poorer EU countries expressing unwillingness to pay into such a pot.

SPIEGEL ONLINE spoke with Lars-Erik Liljelund, 62, Sweden's special envoy for climate change issues, about the prospects for success in Copenhagen. His country currently holds the rotating EU presidency and will represent the EU during the talks.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Things are not looking good at the moment for the December climate change summit in Copenhage. What do you think will be the outcome of the talks?

Liljelund: I don't think that we will end up with a legally binding treaty. But we will have a political agreement with substantial content. For sure, Copenhagen will not be the end of the road.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The 2007 climate change summit in Bali already resulted in one roadmap. Why do we need another?

Liljelund: The Bali roadmap was a declaration on how to negotiate. But for different reasons, these talks have gone too slow. Copenhagen must now deliver more than a declaration, something that can guide the further negotiations. Some of the main issues have to be solved.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Given the magnitude of the problem presented by global warming, it seems quite irresponsible to take such a somnulent approach.

Liljelund: It is indeed irresponsible from an EU point of view. But you need at least two to tango. The global community must come together to agree on something. The EU has put down some numbers on the table and currently we are discussing our financial contribution. But the others haven't, and that is a problem.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The US climate bill has been bogged down in Congress for months. Will we see movement before the Copenhagen summit starts?

Liljelund: The US is so careful because they had a bad experience last time, when they committed to numbers in Kyoto only to get home and see there was no possibility to get it through Congress. Now, according to our understanding, the Senate needs to take action on the climate bill currently before it. Only then can the US come to a type of agreement that we are talking about.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: So far, China and India haven't shown much willingness to move either.

Liljelund: China has been fairly constructive. And India is about to move. I would not be surprised if they came up with numbers before Copenhagen.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Even if they do, will we see actual CO2 emissions reductions in these countries?

Liljelund: First of all, these countries need to show that they intend to deviate from a business-as-usual scenario. To reach the target of limiting global warming to just 2 degrees Celsius, China's emissions have to peak in 2020. That is necessary.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Can the EU take a leading role in the negotiations?

Liljelund: Leadership is something that you are given. You cannot say 'I am a leader.' And concerning the financing, we are already in a leading role. We know from bilateral discussions with emerging economies that this is acknowledged. Hopefully, the European Council at the end of this month will actually agree on concrete figures for the financing.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Any financial commitment by the EU seems to be jeopardized by burden sharing issues.

Liljelund: We must remember that we have 12 new member states in the European Union. There is a huge difference in the economic strength between some of these new member states and the old ones. We have to acknowledge that and handle it ably. Countries like Latvia are under extremely high economic pressure. We cannot demand that they contribute to the same degree as the old member states.

Interview conducted by Christoph Seidler

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,656424,00.html

O u r T u r n I s N O W

www.wwf.org.ph

On the 28th of March, 2009 the Philippines participated in an environmental Global Event known as Earth Hour.

Ranked as the Number 1 participating country, over 400 establishments in 50 cities joined in to make a stand for survival and to cry out for JUSTICE.

Today we experience a bigger challenge, an environmental war which shall only be decided this DECEMBER in COPENHAGEN. WWF Philippines is ready to fight for this, are you? It is our turn to make a difference. Exercise your right to VOTE EARTH!

http://www.earthhour.org



http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3489/3992612044_5a154d68a2.jpg
www.blogactionday.org

Epic Rainfall, Epic Floods Hit Metro Manila

Written by: Jose Ma. Lorenzo Tan / WWF Philippines, 27 September 2009



In a span of barely six hours 341 millimeters of rain (13.38 inches) fell on Metro-Manila. With most major arteries rendered impassable, this metropolis of 13 Million people went into virtual gridlock.

Rivers and lakes within the metropolis and surrounding provinces spilled their banks, forcing residents living along these high risk zones to abandon their homes and move to relief centers. Power went out in many areas. And so, many residents suddenly found themselves cut off from television, radio and web updates. Along with that, went ATMs and cash, so crucial in a calamity. Corner stores and 7-11s quickly ran out of essential goods. Except for the elevated light rail system, the transport system within Metro-Manila ground to a halt. Traffic officers were nowhere to be found. Thousands of commuters had to walk down flooded streets that were, in some cases, chest deep in water. Abandoned vehicles sat along roadways, sidewalks and parks, like ghostly rapids in the current. Rescuers, caught flatfooted, could not get into flooded districts. AM Radio reported many cases of families forced to climb up onto their rooftops, while waiting for rescue. As darkness fell, dams filled to overflowing and, to everyone*s concern, floodgates were opened * aggravating the crisis in several vulnerable towns. Flights and ship departures were cancelled. Travelers and tourists found themselves stuck in terminals, ill-equipped for a long wait. The mega-city had turned into a mega-mess. It was every man for himself.

According to Nathaniel Cruz, head of the Philippine weather bureau, this was the heaviest rainfall Manila has ever experienced in the history of the Bureau, far surpassing the highest 24-hour rainfall registered 42 years ago.

Climate change?

Cruz said, "Today, we really experienced an extreme weather event."

The volume of rain dumped by "Ondoy" in barely six hours, was almost equal to the average monthly rainfall of Metro Manila - 392 millimeters. In a matter of six hours, the National Capital Region and an area covering 23 provinces with a population exceeding 35 Million people found themselves face to face with what has now been officially acknowledged as the frightening and tragic face of climate change.

Ondoy (international code name Ketsana), the 15th tropical cyclone to enter the Philippine Area of Responsibility, slammed into the eastern side of Luzon Island from the Pacific Ocean before noon Saturday with maximum winds of 85 kph near the center and gustiness of up to 100 kph. It wasn*t even a full-blown typhoon. And, strangely enough, the epic disaster spawned by Ondoy hit Manila in a season that has been globally recognized as El Nino * a period of drought.

Ondoy taught Manila a painful and expensive lesson. With climate change, no one is exempt. Its impacts are dynamic and non-linear. Coastal zones and flood prone areas along river banks and lake shores are, of course, going to get hit. But other less vulnerable areas and sectors are affected as well because the impacts of an extreme weather event spill over into transportation, infrastructure, power, telecommunications, health, food security, water - all leading to internal displacement and marginalization of hundreds, even thousands, of people. This, in turn, hobbles the economy setting off a vicious degenerative cycle that can only be described as the human face of what climate scientists call "positive feedback".

There is no doubt that climate change is here. Are we prepared to adapt to this nebulous, aggressive future? Clearly, no. But, it is never too late to work pro-actively. There is no question that we must shut this Pandora's box of fossil fuels that have given birth to climate change. But that is not enough. Hunger happens daily. And it will not wait. Climate adaptation should start now. Locally first, then nationally, then globally. Planning must start from scenarios of the future, rather than from the present. Collectively, we must identify "next practices", because today's "best practice" will no longer suffice. We must start small, learn fast and scale rapidly.

And, most of all, we have to learn how to work together.

There are many solutions, but we only have one planet.

Climate Change: The Biggest Threat to Economic Recovery

By Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, and James P. Leape, Director General of WWF International

After a year of pain and pessimism, we are starting to see signs of an economic recovery. Green shoots are sprouting. Governments’ bold economic and financial actions of over the past year are beginning to take effect.

But we are not out of the woods yet. We now need to make sure that recovery is sustained, and for that bold action on climate change will be needed. As world leaders prepare for the UN climate change talks in Copenhagen this December, one of their top priorities must be to move their economies towards a low-carbon future.

Business as usual is not an option if the economic recovery is to be sustained. If we carry on increasing greenhouse gas emissions, the resulting climate change will lead to massive upheavals: floods and droughts, more violent storms, more intense heat waves, escalating conflicts over food and water and resources. Shocking signs are already visible of what may lie in store.

The Arctic ice-cap is melting, posing threats that were almost inconceivable a few years ago. Less ice means more sea water. A threatened rise in global sea levels could flood many coastal cities worldwide and expose 150 million people to coastal flooding risks by 2070. As the permafrost thaws, the release into the atmosphere of huge stores of frozen methane and carbon dioxide would accelerate global warming even more.

Faced with such risks, we need to act now to prevent worst-case scenarios from becoming reality. According to analysis from the OECD, IPCC, McKinsey and others, serious climate action will cost only a fraction of a percentage point of annual growth in world GDP. Doing nothing, by contrast, as the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change has warned us, could lead to radically larger losses.

Starting today, we need to change our lifestyles and our attitudes. We need to produce, transport, consume, regulate, govern and think differently. We need to go green. Some stimulus packages adopted by governments this year included investments in green infrastructure and jobs. That was a good start, but a deeper structural shift is needed.

The financial and economic crisis from which we are emerging provides a unique opportunity to achieve that. Last month's G20 agreement to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies by 2020 was a positive move - according to OECD analysis, removing fossil fuel subsidies in some of the developing countries alone could reduce global GHG emissions by 10% in 2050, while also increasing economic efficiency. But in addition, we must channel investment into clean-energy technologies, buildings and transport infrastructures that can be the foundation of a low-carbon economy.

In doing so, we will create huge opportunities in the form of new industries and new jobs, helping to offset recent job losses in other sectors. In China alone, the renewable energy sector already generates output worth US$ 17 billion and employs one million workers. That’s only a small part of what could lie in store. The potential for "green technologies” in such areas as energy, water, buildings, transportation and industry is huge.

Between now and Copenhagen, we should stay focused on climate change and address a series of major sticking points in current international negotiations.

To keep a good chance of limiting the rise in global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, global emissions of greenhouse gases must peak within the next 10 to 15 years and then start to decline. For that to be possible, every nation must play its part.

To start with, advanced economies must agree to make sharp cuts in their own greenhouse gas emissions while at the same time providing robust financing to support mitigation and adaptation in developing countries. But emerging economies must also contribute. In return for financing commitments from advanced economies, they must pledge to take appropriately ambitious action to counter the negative effects of increased energy use and deforestation.

One of the principal challenges will be to agree on concrete proposals for the financing mechanisms that will make global climate action possible. We need to pave the way for a flow of investment and finance from OECD countries to developing countries.

In 2007, bilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA) flows for low-carbon investments in developing countries were about US$ 4.3 billion, with multilateral financing contributing a similar amount. This will need to increase sharply and be complemented by private sector financing over the long-term.

Urgent action is needed. Climate change is the greatest challenge that humanity has ever faced collectively. We must respond to it now, for our own sake and for the sake of our children and grandchildren. We can make going green compatible with increased prosperity. Copenhagen must mark a turning point in our efforts.

www.blogactionday.org

100 (90) Days Until Copenhagen: A Filipino Stand Against Climate Change

On the 8th of September (Tuesday), GCCA-Philippines, Oxfam, Greenpeace, WWF-Philippines, GRIPP (Green Renewable Independent Power Producers), Christian Aid, and NGO Forum on the ADB and other groups had launched the 90 Days Until Copenhagen in line with its tcktcktck Campaign.

Brandished with a local flavor of tiktok tiktok, it was a day that not only marked a global urgency, but a stand for survival. GCCA-Philippines had called upon the voices of the embassies of the European Union and that of the United States to the Philippines for them to remember why their responsibilities for current and future generations could not be ignored. A reflection of a global movement that plays favor to organized national initiatives, GCCA-Philippines decided to make use of a caravan of bikers and electric jeepneys. They were our battalion of heroic individuals, cycling from one embassy stop to the next, amidst the logistical challenge and intense downpour.

Gathering at the Makati City Hall foyer enduring much precipitation, GCCA member organizations, bikers, and media representatives waited in anticipation for their send-off into the streets. Initially briefed by Francis dela Cruz of Greenpeace, the bikers listened intently as they were educated on the purpose of the event followed by briefing on tiktok tiktok demands by Yeb Sano of WWF-Philippines and Marie Nunez of Oxfam. The final step of the ceremony was a blessing from Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay, who greeted the bikers and participated in a photo-op with the whole group. What followed was a column of bikers bearing tiktok tiktok tiktok documented by media, observed by GCCA organizers, escorted by local officials but witnessed by the public. You could say we caused traffic. :-)

Our first stop was to be the Embassy of the European Union to the Philippines or specifically the Delegation of the European Commission to the Philippines. In spite of some mix-up as to the actual meeting point with the embassy's representatives, we were still received well. Accompanied by media personnel, GCCA had presented both our letter and miniature calendars counting down 90 Days to Copenhagen to Mr. Juan Echanove, Environment, Sustainable Development and Food Security Programme Officer and Mr. Gabriel Munuera ViC1als, European Commission Delegation Charge de Affaires as a token of the global mission for a New Climate Deal. While proper introductions with GCCA were done, the media had gathered their fair share of information from them as well. Upon our leave, we bid them farewell, not to mention a photo-op, and were off to the next stop.

Our second and final stop was to be the Embassy of the United States of America to the Philippines. Gathering in front of its main gates, we were immediately greeted by heavy security but with Mr. Dovas Saulys, Environment Officer. With the cyclists and electric jeepneys planted by embassy bounds, we surely had attracted some attention from car drivers, as this was during a busy time of the day. Presenting our letter as well as another miniature calendar, GCCA spokespersons had once again identified themselves with the proper introductions while shutters flicked simultaneously. To follow were media crews for the final interview with both GCCA representatives and that of the representative from the embassy. Before departing, we had decided to take one last official photo-op with Mr. Dovas Saulys and were off. He had left with the worry of getting our offering wet.

Feedback on the ground was generally good. Although the cyclists had had to endure heavy rains, this did not mar them from doing their share in the event. GCCA considers them as heroes for their obvious efforts. Though we have not yet been featured on televised news programs, the event was featured on media publishers such as inquire.net, the front page of Business World and that of the Manila Standard. Thus, media output still gave positive results. As cited by Jessica of Christian Aid, we had hit a very good note on this one, since embassies had responded to us, even enduring bad weather with us. Other participants were even exhilarated at the very thought of having been so close in proximity to the US Embassy, for many of us would never have imagined so. Another good note was that it had opened opportunities for future engagements with GCCA, as cited by Dante of Oxfam.

A few things to consider next time however, would be to include radio broadcasting as a medium to promote and distribute climate-consciousness to a wider range of audience. Also, we agreed that it was best not to cause too much traffic next time and to ensure that official escorts were clear on all details of the route.

Thus ends our launch with a renewed hope and incentive for pursuing greater efforts in pushing for a renewed Climate Deal on our side of the world in this global struggle. The strength of our activities is centered in the hope of being resonated to the global stage of Cop-15. We are most grateful for all who had participated as well as supported our endeavors locally and internationally and welcome so much more the challenge of building a formidable voice in this battle.