200 Davao City bikers join Pedal for People and Planet
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 06 November) — Some 200 cyclists in Davao City on Sunday joined the last leg of the “Pedal for People and Planet” simultaneously held in 10 cities and provinces in the country to call on global economies to pay their climate debt in time for the opening of the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt from November 6 to 18.
Ruel Kenneth Felices, digital campaigner of the Interfacing Development Interventions for Sustainability (IDIS), Inc. told MindaNews on Sunday that the bikers supported global calls to encourage governments of rich and industrialized countries to immediately deliver on their promise to allocate “climate reparations” for developing countries like the Philippines that has been suffering severely from the impact of climate crisis.
Felices said different environment groups also initiated a similar event in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Atimonan, Quezon, Batangas, Butuan City, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu and Tacloban.
Aside from Philippines, the same movement was also organized in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Japan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Nepal.
He added that rich countries such as Japan, US, UK, and member states of the European Union, collectively known as the “Global North,” have the greatest contribution to the greenhouse gas emissions that worsen the climate crisis.
“The concept of our call for reparation is that these countries from the Global North are obliged to deliver climate finance to the Global South,” he added.
COP27 will gather world leaders to take action towards achieving the world’s collective climate goals as agreed under the Paris Agreement of 2015 and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) of 1992.
The UNFCC is a legally binding agreement requiring governments of developed countries to “provide climate finance to developing countries in recognition that developed countries have contributed the most to the problem of climate change.”
At 5 a.m., participants of “Pedal for People and Planet” in the city rode 15 kilometers starting from Roxas Avenue fronting the Ateneo de Davao University, to Azuela Cove in Lanang and back to where it started. The event was organized by the Asian People’s Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD) with Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ), Sanlakas, Oriang, 350.org Pilipinas, Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC), The Climate Reality Project Philippines, Oxfam Philippines, Greenpeace Pilipinas, Caritas Philippines, Interfacing Development Interventions for Sustainability, Youth for Climate Justice, Ecoteneo, Sustainable Davao Movement and No Burn Pilipinas.
In a press release, APMDD coordinator Lidy Nacpil said the plight of people of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the Philippines after climate change-related calamities dramatically and tragically highlight the gravity and urgency of addressing climate change.
The climate finance will be used “for adaptation, building resilience, and GHG reduction measures in developing countries, which includes the transition to renewable energy away from fossil fuels. It is not aid or assistance but part of reparations for the harm caused.”
Atty. Mark Peñalver, executive director of IDIS, added that “Global North” should “bear the greatest responsibility for the climate crisis to pay their climate debt owed to people and communities who contributed the least, but bear the greatest impacts.”
“With the recent incidents caused by Typhoon Paeng, it is important to provide climate finance to cover loss and damage to lives, infrastructure, ecosystems and economies”.
The COPs are the “biggest and most important annual climate-related conferences. This year marks the 27th annual summit, or COP27.”
According to organizers of the Pedal for People and Planet, countries agreed to deliver stronger commitments this year, including updated national plans with more ambitious targets during COP26 last year.
Out of 193 countries, only 23 have so far submitted their plans to the UN, according to the organizers. (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
No comments:
Post a Comment