Cong. Edgar Chatto raises awareness on climate change at the Congressional level following his privilege speech delivered during the plenary session on Sept. 5, 2022. Contributed photo
Fellow representatives and climate change advocates lauded Cong. Edgar Chatto, the chairman of the House Committee on Climate Change, for raising the issue on the challenges about global weather in the 19th Congress.
Chatto also urged everyone to be aware about climate change emergency affecting the planet.
Moreover, the first district solon, in a privilege speech in the plenary session on Monday, Sept. 5, 2022, called for the passage of a climate change sensitive and responsive budget for 2023, stressing that climate change is real and getting worse.
Iloilo Third District Representative Lorenz Defensor thanked Chatto for raising the call for climate emergency in the House of Representatives and expressed full support of the Climate Change Committee’s agenda.
It is known that the Philippines is the 4th most affected nation in the world when it comes to climate change, based on data from the Global Climate Risk Index 2021.
The country faces a myriad of threats caused by climate change such as violent storms, heavy flooding and other severe weather disturbances.
Furthermore, Defensor also shared that annual global greenhouse gas emission is estimated to be 81 billion tons released into atmosphere produced by industries manufacturing steel, cement, plastic, electricity and energy, agriculture produce transportation and cooling and heating of homes.
Meanwhile, Deputy Majority Leader and Quezon Second District Cong. Jayjay Suarez commended Chatto for putting climate change awareness at the Congressional level.
Suarez lauded Chatto for underscoring the impact of typhoons in the country.
Suarez also wants to hold the large carbon producers to be accountable and help countries, like the Philippines, in mitigating the impact of climate change.
In the Climate Change Committee hearing on Sept. 6, 2022, climate change and environmental advocates, and national agencies also acknowledged the importance of bringing climate change issues at the center of policy-making bodies.
Greenpeace Philippines Executive Director Lea Guerrero congratulated Chatto on the privilege speech. Guerrero is optimistic that more legislators will protect the country from the effects of climate change.
In his speech, Chatto highlighted the national inquiry on climate change by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR).
The CHR said, “if the international community proceeds with a business-as-usual approach to climate change, the Filipino experience of deprivation of fundamental rights will become the norm in many nations, or even worse.”
The inquiry was in response to petitions filed by Greenpeace Southeast Asia and concerned citizens from across the country to examine the impact of climate change on human rights.
Chatto raised the point that while the Coronavirus disease (Covid) pandemic remains and needs to get significant attention, Congress should also focus on addressing climate change.
“It is for this reason that there is hope in the current administration’s governance direction. His Excellency, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s first ever State of the Nation Address (SONA) not only discussed in fleeting but dedicated a whole section on climate change as a priority agenda, a first in a SONA,” he said.