MANILA, July 16, 2013—Members of the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ) stormed the office of European Union Commission and embassies of rich countries at the RCBC Plaza in Makati City on July 12 asking them to pay their climate debts.
“We are here to exorcise the spirit of deception of rich countries whose offices are inside this building. For years, they pledged to cut their greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions and pay the climate debt they owed to poor countries, but all these are mere rhetoric and what has been fulfilled is inadequate,” said Gerry Arances, coordinator of PMCJ.
Arances added that rich countries have continuously undermined the principles of the Climate Convention.
“The convention obligates these countries to cut their GHG emissions, provide climate finance funds for adaptation and mitigation needs of developing countries, provide technology and capacity building. Look at where we are now,” he added.
In a statement, PMCJ accused rich countries of the North of filling the Earth’s atmosphere with their GHG emissions to propel their nation’s industrialization and developments.
“This accumulation of GHG emissions fuelled global warming and climate change which brought us to where we are today. The current GHG concentration in the earth’s atmosphere is now at 400 ppm, a record breaking state that never before seen for hundreds of thousands of years,” the group added.
“Last month, we also trooped here to deliver the message to EU and US that they are responsible for the disasters that devastated and will devastate us. Today, we are asking them to act and show their people and the peoples of the South that they are indeed sincere with their promises. We say enough of the deceptions. Cut your emissions, pay up your climate debts,” Arances furthered. (Jandel Posion)
