Climate Change Conference Highlights
Integrity in Managing Resources
“We need to reconfigure institutions, rethink the kind of
integrity that leaders have to put forth when we talk about good
governance in managing resources and the way we respond to climate
change,” said Presidential Advisor on Environmental Protection
Secretary Neric Acosta at a conference entitled Changing
the Climate Towards Good Governance held on 27 March
2012 at The Mind Museum
in Taguig City..
Rep. Mel Sarmiento, member of the House Committee on Ecology stated
that congress has been trying to address as many environmental concerns
as possible. “We have to change the mindset that we have.
Climate change is an opportunity to do this,” encouraged Sarmiento.
He enumerated the legislation passed by congress including the Clean
Air Act and Solid Waste Management Act - both authored by Acosta,
the Climate Change Act, and the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management
Act. Mr. Jitendra Shah of the Asian
Development Bank (ADB) stressed that the Philippines was not
short of good legislation, but that the implementation of these
laws was often failing.
The discussion also focused on progress and sustainable development.
Atty. Christian Monsod, Chair of the Climate
Change Congress of the Philippines, stressed that at the center
of development must be the poor, which he suggested could be done
through quality investments in sectors like agriculture.
Delegates from the Council of Asian
Liberals and Democrats (CALD), who just adopted a resolution
on how the region should respond to climate change, were present
at the conference. Mr. Ng Lip Yong shared the Malaysian experience
on how to achieve sustainable development while Dr. Rajiva Wijesinha,
former CALD chair, talked about citizens’ participation
and cooperation to address the issue.
The participants were given a tour of The Mind Museum,
the first first-class science museum in the Philippines. Ms. Alexandra
Cuyegkeng explained the museum’s architecture that is both
innovative and sustainable. “Being here in this freshly-minted
Mind Museum is something we can be proud of in a symbolic sense
and as a practical approach to what we are doing. Ultimately, in
all that what we do - the decisions that will have lasting impact
in the society, we will have to ground them with science,”
Acosta told the audience.
The winning entries to acCLICKmatize,
a photo contest on adaptive measures on climate change were presented
at the event. The pictures are now part of The Mind Museum's digital
exhibit.
The event was organized by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for
Freedom (FNF), a German liberal foundation. “For many people
climate change is something that seems to happen far away, in
Kyoto or in Durban. But climate change affects ordinary people,
particularly in a country like the Philippines. Just look at the
extraordinary devastation that the typhoons Ondoy and Sendong
brought recently. With good governance these disastrous effects
could have been avoided, or in any case mitigated.” said
FNF Country Director Jules Maaten.
