THE Philippines under President Bongbong Marcos will go all-out in pursuing the world's climate change policy, in cooperation with other nations in the Asian region.
It was Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno who affirmed that PBBM will continue pursuing a whole-of-nation approach in mitigating climate risks.
Like our top officials, we also note that the Philippines is one of the countries at highest risk for climate-related disasters.
Finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of 20 countries met recently to discuss climate-related policy levers to enable the transition towards greener economies. The G20 is composed of 19 countries plus the European Union which together comprises the world's largest economies and around 60 percent of its population. The Philippines is not a member of G20 but it was invited by Indonesia, which is this year's chair and president of the group.
It was President Marcos himself who mentioned in his inaugural speech his concern about plastic pollution, environmental degradation, global warming and climate change. The Chief Executive considers these issues as priority items that his administration will address.
This is a full 360-degree reversal of the policy of former President Rodrigo Duterte who had nothing but contempt for climate change because of his bias against the European Union and the United States.
The Marcos administration, therefore, is supporting the passage of a bill that would either regulate or tax the use of single-use plastics. Diokno said the DOF is also studying the imposition of a carbon tax in the country. The Philippines is also in tandem with the Asian Development Bank to speed-up our transition from coal to clean and renewable energy.
The upcoming winter this year is expected to be most severe for Europe, especially so because Russia has stopped selling its natural gas to European countries because of their support for Ukraine. Many Europeans will die from the cold, or at least suffer hard for supporting the United States in the ongoing war.
It looks like humanity will be hit hard or decimated by the global cold rather than the global warm.
Many Filipinos who pine for winter should thank nature -- not god -- that we have a tropical climate and that the cold never bothers them at all.