The Philippines must declare a climate emergency in preparation for unprecedented conditions by 2050, an analyst said Thursday.
The temperature in the country is expected to rise by 7 to 8 degrees Celsius, said Tony La Viña, acting executive director of the Manila Observatory, who described climate change as a “very serious, existential threat.”
“It means more Yolandas, droughts, loss of water. The problems we’ve already been facing in the past 10 years will multiply and we will not be able to cope with that,” he told ANC’s Dateline Philippines.
“That’s why it’s important to declare an emergency, we have a window of more or less 10 years in which we can try to avert the effects.”
Declaring a climate emergency will mean shifting to renewable energy and abandoning coal power plants “faster than we’re already doing,” La Viña said.
“We’re gonna get there but we’re just getting there too slowly,” he said.
The Philippines was found as the most susceptible country to hazards brought about by climate change, according to the 2019 Global Peace Index.
It said 47 percent of the country’s population is in areas highly exposed to climate hazards such as earthquakes, tsunami, floods, tropical cyclones and drought.
Over 740 local governments in 16 countries, including Britain, have declared a climate emergency, according to the Climate Mobilization group. — With a report from Reuters
Source: news.abs-cbn.com
