‘No climate justice on the Paris climate pact’

MANILA — “Good talkers may be found in Paris, but, the struggle for climate justice did not end there.”

These were the words of Bayan Muna partylist representative Neri Colmenares as the world’s nations adopted yet another international agreement to limit the causes of man-made climate change.

The Bayan Muna solon and Senior Deputy Minority Leader said that the Paris talks, despite being hailed as an unprecedented success, “will not deliver genuine climate justice.”

“As long as the world is driven by capitalist production, powerful countries will refuse to cut down their emissions and continue to plunder the world’s resources. The Paris Agreement is not the climate solution nor the justice we have hoped and fought for,” Rep. Colmenares said.

“The attainment of climate justice remains in the hands of the peoples of the world. At the end of the tortuous climate negotiation in Paris, it has failed to provide climate justice for the world’s peoples,” Rep. Colmenares added.

“The Paris pact is only a repackaged ‘climate solutions’ peddled by big corporations and rich nations. The pact skimmed over on the need for an immediate and dramatic emission reduction to lower global temperatures,” Rep. Colmenares further said.

The emission cuts contained in the agreement are based on voluntary pledges dubbed ‘Intended Nationally Determined Contributions or INDCs.  The lawmaker said that this is neither equitable nor even scientifically viable.

“The Paris climate pact only awarded an ‘out’ for big polluters. While brandishing its supposed support to stop climate change, they stand firm on their refusal to reduce their emissions,” Rep. Colmenares said.

For his part, fellow Bayan Muna representative Carlos Isagani Zarate said that the Paris climate pact also failed to do justice for the impacted and most vulnerable people.

“After all, Paris was not a good idea. We are in the same quandary as we were when the climate talks started 21 years ago,” Rep. Zarate claimed.

“Foremost, rich countries, which are the principal culprits of this climate crisis, should bear the brunt of  providing compensation and financial support to the impacted poor and mopst vulnerable countries, like  the Philippines. Yet,  the Paris climate pact failed on this,” Rep. Zarate said.

“It is still up to the people to attain climate justice.,” Rep. Zarate ended. (PR)