Fund for P2-B waste-to-energy project in Davao City still available

by Antonio Colina IV

DAVAO CITY – The 5.013-billion yen or P2.052-billion donation of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in 2018 for the construction of a waste-to-energy project in Davao City is still available, First District Councilor Temujin “Tek” Ocampo said.

In an interview, Ocampo said that the local government is just waiting for the National Economic Development Authority to approve the project because it requires a counterpart fund of at least P3.486 billion from the national government.

The local government plans to build a WTE project in a 10-hectare property in Biao Escuela, Tugbok District. 

Ocampo said he is hoping that NEDA will approve the WTE project within the year.

He believed the project would push through despite the strong opposition from different environmental advocates in the city.

“I will support the completion of the project because we are already in the implementing stage. The 19th Council approved the project, and it’s now in implementing stage. We are only waiting for updates from NEDA for the budget requirements,” he said.

He said that representatives from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and Department of Energy expressed support for the proposed project when they visited this city in December. 

Ocampo said the WTE would generate a capacity of 11 megawatts. Of this total, 30 percent will be utilized to run the facility.

Various groups are wary of the establishment of WTE facility due to its potential hazards to the health of the local residents and Davao’s rich biodiversity, particularly the fragile watersheds.

Environmental advocates pointed out that the wastes generated in the city are 50 percent organic, which cannot be utilized to fuel a WTE technology.

This city generates around 600 to 700 tons of waste daily, according to the City Environment and Natural Resources Office.

Ocampo added that segregation will still be practiced even after the WTE project is established.

He also allayed fears that the project would have detrimental effects on the health of the public and the environment. 

Ocampo claimed that studies from countries utilizing the technology have shown that those facilities neither pose health risks nor threaten the environment.

“To be honest with you, the council has already approved the project, and we are now on implementing stage… We are asking the national government to allocate the budget so that we can push through the project,” he said.

Atty. Mark Peñalver, executive director of the Interfacing Development Interventions for Sustainability (IDIS), said that a WTE facility is a “dangerous way” of generating power as it is not a renewable energy source and produces more greenhouse gasses than coal.

He said the incinerator, which emits highly toxic and carcinogenic substance, will affect residents of 20 barangays here – Mintal, Santo Niño, Catalunan Grande, Langub, Waan, Callawa, Riverside, Balengaeng, Tacunan, Biao Guianga, Angalan, Los Amigos, Talandang, New Valencia, New Carmen, Matina Biao, Tagakpan, Ula, Tugbok, and Biao Escuela.

The project site of the proposed WTE facility is located 2.2 kilometers away from Biao Escuela Elementary School, and 550 meters from a relocation site of displaced families in Catalunan Grande, according to Peñalver.

Save the environment, minimize or terminate use of plastics

by Manila Bulletin

Editorial

“Plastic pollution seriously endangers the ecosystem, especially bodies of water like rivers that are vital to fishermen’s livelihood.”

With this in mind, the House of Representatives passed on third and final reading this week House Bill No. 4102 that proposes to raise the ₱20 excise tax on single-use plastic bags by 400 percent. The bill defines single-use plastic bags as secondary level plastics made of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic polymer such as “ice,” “labo,” or “sando” bags, with or without handle, used as packaging for goods or products. 

This is another step in the right direction to reduce plastic waste and help save the environment. It will likewise be a good complement to Republic Act No. 9003 (Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000) and Republic Act No. 11898 (Extended Producer Responsibility Act).

The environment problem is enormous, no doubt about it. In fact, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres amplified the magnitude of the global problem when he called on governments and multinational corporations to stop the “the orgy of destruction.”

“With our bottomless appetite for unchecked and unequal economic growth, humanity has become a weapon of mass extinction,” Guterres said ahead of the formal opening of biodiversity talks in Canada. “Our land, water, and air are poisoned by chemicals and pesticides, and choked with plastics.”

In pushing for House Bill 4102, Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, one of the authors, noted that the Philippines is the third largest contributor to plastic pollution. This is backed by a World Bank study that shows “a staggering 2.7 million tons of plastic waste are generated in the Philippines each year, and an estimated 20 percent ends up in the ocean.” 

With stiffer tax under this measure, together with the Extended Producer Responsibility Act, we express hope that this will discourage manufacturers from producing single-use plastic and instead come up with more environment-friendly packaging products in a bid to lessen plastic pollution that seriously impacts biodiversity and climate change.

As the product connotes, single-use plastic is used only once. The product doesn’t fully decompose and only breaks down into pieces, the process of which takes hundreds of years. And since it is produced from fossil fuels, the greenhouse gases it emits during production contributes to climate change.

And just to underscore the adverse effects of single-use plastic, American oceanographer and environmental activist Philippe Cousteau Jr. once said: “One of my big pet peeves is single-use plastic bags. I think it’s one of the stupidest ideas in the world.” The single-use plastic bag bill is a good complement to the Extended Producer Responsibility Act, which requires obliged corporations—the brand owners and product manufacturers—to recover 80 percent of their plastic packaging wastes or face up to ₱20 million fine.

We commend our lawmakers for coming up with measures to address this global concern. Discouraging the production and use of single-use plastic bags may come with a stiff price as producing a more environment-friendly product may mean higher cost. But the higher price tag is pittance compared to its long-term beneficial effect on mankind. What is paramount is the preservation of the environment for the sake of survival.

Let humanity be an instrument of survival, instead of being a weapon of mass extinction.

Marcos: Preserve environment

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. led the national simultaneous bamboo and tree planting event in San Mateo, Rizal to mark his 65th birthday on Tuesday. PHOTO BY JOHN RYAN BALDEMOR

By Catherine S. Valente, Manila Bulletin

(UPDATE) PRESIDENT Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. on Tuesday called on the public to unite in protecting and preserving the environment to "make sure that our plans for the country's economy will succeed."

In his speech, the President described the tree-planting activities as "simple yet impactful undertaking[s]" to protect the environment.

"The challenges we hurdled in recent years highlighted the fact that we have one Earth. We must spare no effort to ensure that it survives in the years to come," Marcos said.

"During my address [on the] State of the Nation, I made it clear: 'Preserving the environment is nothing less than preserving life.' And therefore, it can only be one of our important priorities if we wish to make sure that our plans for the country's economy will succeed," he added.

Marcos thanked the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Department of Agriculture, for the collaboration that made the events in San Mateo and elsewhere possible.

"We have to do this as a concrete step that we take so that nature is cared for because it desperately needs that care and it desperately needs that attention," he said.

The President said this initiative "will greatly help in raising awareness on environmental welfare and protection."

He also thanked the nongovernment organizations present during the activity.

"Your presence in the selected areas across the country shows your commitment to prioritize Mother Earth and encourage everyone to unite for her benefit," he said. "Indeed, this initiative will contribute to the DENR's National Greening Program, the country's most ambitious reforestation program yet."

With the goal of reducing poverty, Marcos said, ensuring food security, environmental stability, conserving biodiversity, and mitigating climate change and adapting to climate change, more than two million hectares of reforestation sites were established from 2011 to 2021.

"An additional 46,265 hectares are expected to be developed in 2022. The DENR targets 11,631 hectares of enhanced National Greening Program sites in 2023," the President said. "And so, the seedlings that we will plant today will be significant in realizing this goal. This program will generate jobs, will generate opportunities and will generate livelihood for our countrymen."

The Chief Executive said more than the economic benefit of this activity, "we are essentially and primarily investing in ensuring that our planet remains a safe space."

Marcos' first 50 days: Gaining trust and control

"Never mind for us, but we are only custodians of this earth. But more so that we can say to the children, the Filipinos that follow us, that we have taken good care of that, which they will inherit," Marcos added.

"Trees and plants in general are vital to human existence. I thus wish that as we appreciate the impact of this endeavor, we also see it for the symbolic gesture that it is. It is a reminder for us to see past our personal interest and have the future in sight," he said.

Tuesday's kick-off ceremony of the "Buhayin ang Pangangalaga ng Kalikasan" is a government program that aims to plant 8,000 seedlings and bamboo planting stocks in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon).

Compos mentis

The tree-planting sites are San Mateo in Rizal; Majayjay, Laguna; Trece Martires City, Cavite; Mataas na Kahoy, Batangas, and Dolores, Quezon.

PhilStar Story - you should not miss

 

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CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT COP26 and the Philippines Coverage by Gaea Katreena Cabico The two weeks in Glasgow, Scotland can set the direction for the world—and Earth—in the decades to come. Our reporter, Gaea, is there for the climate summit that gathers political and industry leaders, scientists and experts as well as activists from all over. (Follow her LIVE coverage here.) Why it matters: The Philippines is no foreigner to powerful cyclones and destructive floods, but climate change can worsen possibilities. It is fourth on the list of countries most impacted by climate change. Filipinos are thus likely to bear the brunt of unsustainable practices and environmental abuse of wealthier nations. This makes concessions made at the highest levels of leadership a "matter of life and death," especially for poorer Filipinos. You may also read: Stories of victims of Super Typhoon Yolanda that ravaged the country exactly eight years ago.

Are our work messages as private as we think?

 

We all need to vent about tasks or colleagues sometimes. But if we gripe on work devices, can our bosses read our messages? I asked myself this question many years ago when I was still working in Germany. Now, as a retiree, I might be my own boss but I am still communicating with people around the world. Those employees all still have a supervisor, chef or boss.

Ask yourself: have you ever had a bad day at work, complained to colleagues about it over an internal messaging app and then worried that your boss might be able to read all of your complaints? Turns out, you have every right to be concerned; communications on a work device are rarely as private as they may seem. British writer Mark Johanson helped me and you, my dear readers,  a lot with some interesting answers and links.

In July, Netflix fired three marketing executives for messages criticizing colleagues on what they thought was a private Slack channel. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos explained in a LinkedIn post that it was not a simple case of employees venting on Slack, but rather “critical personal comments made over several months about their peers”, including during meetings when those peers were presenting. “It's also worth noting that we don't proactively monitor Slack or email,” he continued. “The Slack channel was open, so anyone could access the conversations even though the employees concerned thought it was private.”  Wow, here we are!

I strongly agree with Mark Johanson in saying that workers are often seduced by the illusion of privacy when it comes to workplace communications, mistakenly believing that they can privately chat, send emails or even video conference on a company computer without their employer viewing that information afterwards. Yet, what appears private in the moment can often become public with the click of a button. The reality is that technology exists for employers to track virtually all workplace communications by all employees at all times, even if companies are rarely transparent about the level to which they do this.

So, where should companies draw the line – and what should workers bear in mind before they send that unguarded message?
 

“Employees should assume that whenever they’re using work owned and issued equipment, anything that they may do – including written communications or websites they may visit – is subject to review,” says Boston-based Heather Egan Sussman, head of law firm Orrick’s global Cyber, Privacy & Data Innovation Group. Very well said and very true!

Of course, there are legitimate reasons why companies monitor internal communications. Sussman says that companies in sectors including financial services are heavily regulated and need to proactively monitor communications as part of their compliance programmes. Anyone who deals with sensitive materials (such as health records or government contracts) may also be proactively monitored, to protect the company’s business, reputation and resources.

Companies outside these sectors often take a more reactive approach, says Sussman, capturing communications through a records-retention programme (which archives data for a set period of time) and then looking back on that information only when it’s necessary to address an issue. This includes not only messages and emails, but often video calls on Skype, Zoom or Teams, too, which can be recorded and logged.

Brian Kropp, chief of research for global research and advisory firm Gartner’s HR practice, based in the Washington DC area, says the only time companies really go back and look through these communications is when there is reason to believe there’s been some sort of performance management problem, data theft, harassment or other complaint that warrants an internal investigation. General griping that doesn’t target an individual is rarely cause for concern. Similarly, everyday managers don’t typically have the ability to freely conduct keyword searches for things like their names.

I learned that when companies do suspect unprofessional behavior has taken place, there are minimal restrictions to prevent them scrutinizing employees' workplace communications. Even though US and European laws do protect communications on things like collective bargaining, Kropp says that, “anywhere in the world, there’s no legal requirement that says employers have to inform you about the data they are collecting about you”.

My advice: Keep that in mind - in a professional environment, it may be best to assume that you’re being monitored and behave accordingly. The best way to share frustrations is "face-to-face" or with private units not linked to your work. Since we are all social media fans, try to avoid communicating also here on a work-owned device. It  can open you up to monitoring.

Business and Environment

My column in Businessweek Mindanao and Mindanao Daily News.

Honestly, the environment and climate change matters me most. Watching the daily news and the never ending horror stories about killing thousands of people due to natural disasters make me sad and sometimes helpless.

Is it already too late? The UN panel on climate change has warned that governments worldwide must act fast if the impact of global warming is to be limited at a manageable cost. Its annual report will form the basis for a global climate deal "as soon as possible".

Governments will have to reduce greenhouse emissions to zero by 2100 if the impact of climate change is to be kept in check at an affordable cost, a United Nations report said last Sunday. Such reports are not new. Only the dates are being changed year by year!

Anyway, if rapid steps were not taken to cut the emissions, however, the price could rise considerably, it said, warning that a failure to curb global warming by the end of the 21st century "will bring high risks of severe, widespread and irreversible impacts globally." I am not an expert, but allow me to question if it will be really at the end of the 21st century?

Such an "irreversible impact" would occur, for example, if Greenland's vast ice sheets were to melt, which could result in the swamping of coastal regions and cities. It's melting already. Please check out my last week's column in this publication.

The effects of climate change were already evident in an increase in extremes of heat, heavy rainfall, the acidification of the world's oceans and a rise in sea levels.

According to the report released by the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC), the cost of reducing carbon-dioxide emissions in the short term would not brake global growth to any great degree. It said annual projected growth of 1.6 to 3.0 percent a year in consumption of goods and services would be cut by just 0.06 of a percentage point per year if immediate action were taken.

The report is a 40-page synthesis summing up 5,000 pages of climate change studies already published since September 2013. The studies establish with 95-percent certainty that almost all global warming seen since the 1950's is man-made. Imagine - since the 1950's!!!

The document, which has been edited  by officials from more than 120 governments meeting in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, has been furnished guidelines for a UN deal on global warming scheduled to be struck at an international summit in Paris already in late 2015.

Options for limiting the amount of greenhouse gas emissions included improving energy efficiency and moving from fossil fuels to wind, solar or nuclear power, according to the study. Words of hope? What really happened since then?

"We have the means to limit climate change," then IPCC chairman Rejendra Pachauri said. Yes, sure. And?

"The solutions are many and allow for continued economic and human development. All we need is the will to change, which we trust will be motivated by knowledge and an understanding of the science of climate change," he added.

Did our global governments understand the science of climate change? And what are the logically following steps and law implementations?

One year total closure of Boracay recommended

By Analou De Vera, Manila Bulletin

Total closure for a maximum of one year was recommended by the interagency task force to address the looming environmental problems that the world-famous Boracay Island is now facing.

The joint recommendation was announced during a meeting on Thursday attended by Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Roy Cimatu, Tourism Secretary Wanda Tulfo-Teo and Interior and Local Government Officer-in-Charge Eduardo Año.

The inter-agency task forced tasked to rehabilitate Boracay led by DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu (right), DILG OIC Sec. Eduardo Año and DOT Sec. Wanda Tulfo-Teo (left) issued a joint declaration recommending the total closure of the island to address several environmental issues.
(DOT / MANILA BULLETIN)

The government officials proposed to President Duterte the “closure of the Boracay Island as tourist destination for a maximum of one year effective one month after its declaration,” said Cimatu, as he read the joint recommendation of the three agencies.

Cimatu stated that closing the island to tourists will give them ample time for the undisrupted implementation of the different measures that will be undertaken “to restore and eventually sustain Boracay Island as a prime tourism destination.”

The following measures were recommended by the agencies during the proposed closure of the Island:

• Upgrading of the sewerage system including the sewer lines to meet the requirement of the entire island as a major tourist destination;
• Installation of all required solid waste management facilities and mechanisms in addition to full compliance with the provisions of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act;”
• Removal of illegal structures in forestlands and wetlands, easement areas and even geologically hazardous areas such as those with sink holes;
• Road widening/ construction, pipe laying and excavations; and
• Rationalization of transport system.

The total closure will take effect 30 days after President Duterte declared a state of calamity in the island. “We are recommending to the President the declaration of the State of Calamity and then after a month, declaration of the closure of Boracay,” Año said.

Meanwhile, Teo said they already coordinated with the different airlines for rebooking of flights and encouraged tourists to visit other travel destinations in the country.

Cimatu said that from 2016, their monthly monitoring results revealed high concentration of fecal coliform in Bulabog beach, which is located at the eastern portion of the Boracay Island.

The Bulabog beach, according to Cimatu, is frequently use by tourists for kite boarding sports. “There are incidents of tourists complaining of skin diseases which included a foreigner complaining on TV” Cimatu said.

In terms of solid waste management, Cimatu reported that about 90 to 115 tons of garbage is being generated per day, “however, the LGU (local government unit) can haul out only 30 tons per day, hence leaving 85 tons of waste in the island per day.”

Cimatu also added that the island’s centralized Materials Recovery Facility has been converted into a dumpsite.

Moreover, the agencies initially identified that there were 937 illegal structures within the forestlands and wetlands, as well as 102 establishments were illegally built within the easement areas, Cimatu said.

After a month that the agencies have started the cleanup, “numerous non-compliant establishments were issued notices of violations and show cause orders, and some establishments conducted voluntary demolitions,” Cimatu noted.

“Nevertheless, much remain to be done to restore the island to its pristine condition,” Cimatu said.

Germany to invest 1 billion Euro in lowering air pollution

 (Associated Press) | Updated November 29, 2017 - 6:31am

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, and German Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks, attend the 2nd summit on air pollution in German cities of the government and the mayors of various German cities in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2017. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel says the federal government will provide 1 billion euros (1.2 billion dollars) to cities and towns across the country in 2018 in an effort to make traffic more environmentally friendly.

The money is to be invested in finding traffic solutions to lower air pollution.

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Many cities in Germany face driving bans because the air pollution is frequently above the allowed maximum levels due to the many cars' exhaust fumes.

The funds are to be invested among other things into electric buses, electric charging stations and a more environmentally friendly traffic infrastructure.

German Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks lauded the initiative as a first important step but called on the automobile industry to also support the government's action plan.

The killer number one

THU, OCTOBER 26, 2017 BY THE MINDANAO DAILY MIRROR LEAVE A COMMENT

IN MY OPINIONKlaus Doring

The report is just on my desk. Maybe also on yours. I didn’t get surprised anymore. Maybe you too!

Pollution kills more people each year than wars, disasters and hunger, also causing huge economic damage, a study says. Almost half the total deaths occur in just two countries.

Environmental pollution is killing more people every year than smoking, hunger or natural disasters, according to a major study released in The Lancet medical journal last  Thursday. One in every six premature deaths worldwide in 2015, could be attributed to diseases caused by toxins in air or water, the study says.

Of the 9 million people killed prematurely by pollution, air pollution was the main cause of deaths, responsible for 6.5 million of the fatalities, followed by water pollution, which killed 1.8 million.

Meanwhile air pollution is also the ‘top health hazard in Europe’. The estimate of 9 million pre-mature deaths, considered conservative by the authors, is one and a half times higher than the number of people killed by smoking, and three times the death toll from AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. It is also 15 times the number of people killed in war or other forms of violence.

Ninety-two percent of pollution-related deaths occurred in low- or middle-income developing countries, with India topping the list at 2.5 million, followed by China at 1.8 million.

Economic costs reach no limit in the polluted sky. The report also attributed massive costs to pollution-related death, sickness and welfare, estimating the costs at some $4.6 trillion (€3.89 trillion) in annual losses — or about 6.2 percent of the global economy.

“What people don’t realize is that pollution does damage to economies. People who are sick or dead cannot contribute to the economy. They need to be looked after,” said one of the study’s authors, Richard Fuller, who is head of the global pollution watchdog Pure Earth.

“There is this myth that finance ministers still live by: that you have to let industry pollute or else you won’t develop. It just isn’t true,” he said. And it’s so very true!

According to the study, the financial burden also hits poorer countries hardest, with low-income countries paying 8.3 percent of their GNP to tackle the harm caused by pollution, as compared with 4.5 percent in richer countries.

The Lancet editors Pamela Das and Richard Horton said the report came at a “worrisome time, when the US government’s Environmental Protection Agency, headed by Scott Pruitt, is undermining established environmental regulations.”

Pruitt announced this month that the US, a major producer of air pollution and greenhouse gases, would be pulling out of former President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan. The plan, which aimed to cut carbon dioxide emissions from electricity production, was expected by the EPA to also reduce smog and soot in the air by 25 percent and thus avoid thousands of premature deaths through asthma and other lung conditions.

Das and Horton said the latest findings should serve as a “call to action.” “Pollution is a winnable battle … Current and future generations deserve a pollution-free world,” they said.

Sure, we all hear and read daily calls to action. But really happened? No deeds follow. Just empty words and statements… . Quo vadis Mother Earth?

Of festival and environment

TUE, AUGUST 8, 2017 BY THE MINDANAO DAILY MIRROR LEAVE A COMMENT

IN MY OPINIONKlaus Doring

While writing this piece, the Kadayawan Festival 2017 in Davao City is just around the corner. Since every year, the celebration offers an incredible array of activities full of fun and joy: dance group competitions, street parties and yes, a food trip at the strip. Sure, Kadayawan is also everything about indulgence in the best cuisines that Davao has to offer. Kadayawan is indeed always a feast of sorts.

Living in Davao City for good since 1999 now, I observed the Kadayawan Festival becoming more and more attractive and enjoyable. I spoke with many tourists during last years and -of course! – expatriates, who kept on praising this festival and its incredible atmosphere. The friendliness and the warm hospitality of Davao people have been mentioned and experienced many times. What a sign for this wonderful city.

Kadayawan means also environment – in other words – thanking and protecting Mother Nature!  This is actually what my heart touches most, because I am an advocate of environment protection! Sometimes, believe me, in the Philippines a tough job!

After several publications about this topic, also in this publication, I did receive several messages and mails telling me, what nonsense I would write about Mother Earth and how to protect her/it. One Anonymous even wrote me, that the nature knows how to help herself. I just thanked this fellow guy for his very own opinion. During that time, I wasn’t really in the mood to start a (useless?) discussion.

Yes, our earth is still slowly (?) but surely dying – but, uninhibited innumerable people are still on stage as enviroNment destroyers – free from worries and drive away eventually existing moral conflicts. Don’t worry – I am not the one who is planning to destroy the Kadayawan Festival joy and party feelings. I just still like to recall former Davao City’s mayor  and now President of this country, Rodrigo R. Duterte’s Kadayawan message from 2009: “With global warming and climate change,  a very real phenomenon in our lives now, we need to look to our indigenous people for wisdom and guidance as they have always been respected toward their relationship with the earth!”

This was 2009. How about now in 2017?

Yes, all of us need to do more  in protecting and promoting our environment. As I mentioned it many times before: I hope and pray that plenty of us participate ACTIVELY if possible in a multi sector campaign of having a shared environmental responsibility. Start already during school education! It’s never too late.

For the sake of our following generations! Happy Kadayawan 2017 in Davao City!

Global environment voices

FRI, MAY 12, 2017 BY THE MINDANAO DAILY MIRROR LEAVE A COMMENT

IN MY OPINIONKlaus Doring

If I meet people fighting for our clean environment, you might find me at their site. Activists have started a eight-day push to get individuals and institutions to divest from oil, gas and coal corporations. Investing in the fossil fuel industry equals pumping money into climate change, they say.

Fossil fuels seem to be losing their unquestioned position as the world’s primary source of energy, particularly after the Paris climate agreement. Even so, governments and private investors continue to sup-port fossil fuel businesses worldwide.

The Global Divestment Mobilization (May 5 to 13, 2017) will draw together thousands of people from across 39 countries on six continents to push forward divestment from fossil fuels, in favor of renewable energy. In other words, to convince investors to withdraw their financial support fossil fuel companies – and in doing so, protect the climate.

Environmental activists and concerned individuals ask for an immediate freeze of any new investment in coal, oil or gas companies. The movement has spread across the world over the past five years. It’s based on the argument that investing in fossil energies fuels the climate crisis.

As a project of the environmental nonprofit organization 350.org, the Global Divestment Mobilization started in United States universities in 2012. But the movement has now reached global dimensions. “Everything is growing very rapidly,” Melanie Mattauch, Europe communications coordinator told international media.

The network includes now countries from Asia, Latin America and Africa. The development of the movement in Brazil, for instance, has been particularly exciting for Mattauch. “There, many bishops and Catholic groups are engaged,” she said. “They want the Vatican to react as a great moral authority – and a great investor.”

And the movement has also been very successful, Mattauch said, pointing to its growth. More than 700 public institutions worldwide have already committed to divest, including educational institutions, philanthropic foundations and governments. Just last week, the German city of Göttingen has become the fourth German city withdrawing investment in coal, oil and gas companies. As German citizen I am happy to learn about it.

Faith-based organizations represent around 20 percent of the total divestment reached yet.

“Christians in the Church have a particular moral and religious obligation to speak out on climate change,” a spokesperson from the Christian Climate Action group told German media. She didn’t want to be named, out of professional reasons.

This is indeed all about raising awareness and making pressure.

Some accuse fossil fuel companies of only surviving thanks to governmental subsidies. Oil Change International issued a 2015 report that G20 governments provided more than $400 billion (360 billion Euro) per year to fossil fuel production, including some of the world’s most carbon-intensive and polluting ones. Let’s face it: unless governments stop propping up fossil fuel companies, divestment will be limited, even with clean energy becoming ever cheaper.

The breakthrough?

TUE, APRIL 26, 2016 BY THE MINDANAO DAILY MIRROR LEAVE A COMMENT

IN MY OPINIONKlaus Doring

It’s not the first time, that representatives of most countries have signed a document for a better world climate. Last Friday, the Paris climate deal has been signed in New York. By signing the four-month-old agreement, the nations pledged to join the fight against global warming.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon opened the ceremony on Friday, describing the accord as “history in the making” in his address to the UN General Assembly. Envoys from more than 170 countries signed the climate deal over the course of the day, setting a new record. “Today you are signing a new covenant with the future,” Ban told the gathering on Friday. “The era of consumption without consequences is over.”

For Germany, Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks was on hand to sign the commitment, which will then require ratification in parliament. Famous Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio also addressed the international officials, telling them they were the “last best hope” for saving the planet. “We can congratulate each other today, but it will mean absolutely nothing” if the envoys fail to implement the deal, DiCaprio said. And this also my opinion. And not only mine. Indeed, if the envoys fail to implement the deal, this signing a new covenant with the future will remain as a piece of scratch paper. Nothing else. Nothing more.

Despite Friday’s signing ceremony, most individual countries are still obliged to ratify the agreement in their own parliaments. Will this happened? And when? In New York, French President Francois Hollande said he would urge his parliament to ratify the accord “by the summer” of 2016. Hollande also called on the EU to “lead by example” and complete the procedure before the year is up. “There is no turning back now,” he said in a brief address to the assembly. Of course not Monsieur Presidente.

The agreement is set to come into force after 55 countries representing at least 55 percent of global polluters formally join it. International leaders have set 2020 as the target date, but many climate experts believe it could happen much sooner. In my opinion: it should happened sooner! On Friday, Beijing’s representatives announced China would ratify the deal by September. The US also intends to finalize the procedure during this presidential election year. They seem not yet to be in a hurry … !

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff (how long?) also spoke before the assembly in New York, pledging that her country would restore and reforest 12 million hectares (30 million acres) of forests and 15 million hectares of degraded pastures, but offering no timetable. Indeed, the country is in a “grave, serious moment.

International leaders agreed on a global effort to curb climate change in December last year. The deal aims to keep the global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) compared to pre-industrial times. Currently, average temperatures are almost 1 degree Celsius higher than before the industrial revolution. Countries are obliged to report on their progress and update their targets every five years. However, there is no penalty if the states miss their emission goals. A nation can also withdraw from the treaty, but not during the first three years after the deal goes into effect. After deciding to pull out, the national government would need to wait for a one-year notice period.

The document also encourages rich countries to help poorer states cut pollution and adapt to climate change. Although no exact amounts were specified, wealthy nations had previously pledged to provide $100 billion (89 billion Euro) annually by 2020.

Is it really the breakthrough? For the sake of our following generations, it should be!

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Rare Animals Threatened by Poisons Chemicals

 

A team of wildlife researches from the Philippine WEagle Foundation Inc. (PEF) has found that the remnant of lowland dipterocarp forests in the Talomo-Lipadas and Panigan-Tamugan Watersheds, the current source of Davao's drinking water, is the habitat of some 28 species that can be only found in the Philippines.

"We were able to document 171 vertebrate species, 28 of which are endemic to the Philippines," said lead researcher Director Jayson Ybanez, who presented the study at the Ateneo de Davao University.

Unsustainable agriculture, illegal logging and population pressure continue to threaten these fragile habitats and may force 28 of them into extinction. 

Ybanez said: "One of the threats that we found out is that banana plantations and farms are slowly encroaching towards the forest, even in areas which are considered environmentally critical areas as defined in the Watershed Code!"

Adaptive management would be a good scheme, wherein interventions are considered experiments where you refine your way of doing conservation and through that, all of your partners learn through doing. Very well said, Sir Ybanez... .

Implementing Ban on Plastics is a Challenge

Last week Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte admitted that implementing the ban on non-biodegradable plastic bags and polystyrene foam containers is "challenging" but said it is a challenge the city is willing to take.

"For a city as big as Davao City, the implementation is a challenge, but the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) is determined to implement the law," the mayor said in an interview.

The ban of the use of plastics is contained in the Solid Waster Management Ordinance approved in 2012. The city will start the implementation on June 28, 2012, two years after the ordinance was submitted. 

I agree with mayor saying while the ordinance contains some "grey areas", it will take time so the city has no choice but to work on the current law. 

Some manufactures, vendors' associations, store owners, and other business establishments made an appeal, because they have yet to get rid of their stock of old plastics.  Also wet food products should be exempted from the ban. The ban covers the use of all plastic bags used for grocery and shopping, packaging for meats and fish in wet markets including materials made of polystyrene foam or Styrofoam. 

The ban is aimed at further mitigating the harmful effects of non-biodegradable materials littered in the environment or dumped at the sanitary landfill. 

Plant Trees and Get Land Tax Discount

 

Amazing. I thought, it's a joke. No, it wasn't!

The news came from Malaybalay City in Mindanao. Provincial board member Jay Albarece has proposed an ordinance granting real property tax discounts with lots with high density of trees to serve as incentive to residence who have been planting and protecting trees in their own lots.

I am doing this since many years. Most of my expatriates and Filipino friends and neighbors do it the same way. 

"One of the  encouraging private individuals and entities to actively participate in the reforestation of the province is to grant real property tax to those who have been growing and protecting the trees in their respective lots!" Albarece said in his proposed ordinance. 

Great idea Sir!

USEP Launches Campus Tree Planting Project

A tree planting activity inside the six-hectare campus of the University of Southeastern Philippines, Obrero, Davao City (where I am also teaching since 4 years), kicked off the launch of the university's sustainable campus project last February 14, 2012. The project is in partnership with the international environmental group Greenpeace.

The launch, highlighted by a forum on energy conservation and efficiency, was participated in by the USEP administrators and employees headed by USEP President Dr. Perfecto A. Alibin., and some students led by the Obrero Campus Student Council.

Alibin said that the program is really essential and timely nowadays. He mentioned the recent calamities that happened in different parts of the Philippines as well as the flodding in Davao City, that even didn't spare the USEP Obrero campus.

The administration led by Dr. Alibin signified their commitment to the program by affixing heir signature in the freedom tarp that bears the challenging questions and statement: "Do you love our Mother Earth? What can USEP do? Conserve energy?"

The project bears the Philippine slogan "Simple lang". "Simple lang - unplug!" "Simple lang - switch off!" "Simple lang - light up efficiently!" 

Church Pushes Campaign to Declare "Tampakan Mountains" as Protected Area

Keeping the environment. Here is another example. And, we need millions more:

MindaNews » Church pushes campaign to declare Tampakan mountains as protected area