Five years ago, the  nations of the world, including the Philippines, met in Paris, France,    on the world’s climate problem --  rising world temperatures due to carbon emissions from the  world’s industries, causing the polar  ice  to melt, ocean levels to rise, and spawning more destructive typhoons and hurricanes.

A Climate  Ambition Summit was convened this weekend by the United Nations and the governments of Britain and France  to assess what progress has been made on the world’s climate since that Paris conference five years ago. The nations had agreed  then  to try to keep the rise in world temperature to less  than 1.5 degrees Celsius and each country  submitted its commitment to take steps to help  reach that goal.

Last Saturday, UN Secretary General  Antonio Guterres told the Climate Ambition Summit:  “Carbon dioxide levels are at a record  high.  Today we are 1.2 degrees hotter than before the Industrial Revolution. If we don’t change course, we may be headed for a catastrophic temperature rise  of more than 3 degrees this century. That is why today I call on all leaders worldwide to declare a state of climate emergency in their countries until carbon neutrality is reached.” Guterres said 38 countries have aleady done  so. “All other countries  should follow,” he added.

The Climate Ambition Summit acknowledged  the public commitments announced only recently  by some nations led by China whose President Xi Jinping told  the  conference China would reduce its emissions by 65 percent over 2005 levels by 2030.

China became the first  nation to announce its commitment to the Paris goal when President Xi Jinping pledged before the United Nations last  September that  China would achieve zero carbon emissions  by 2060. It was soon followed by Japan, whose Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga  committed to achieve the same goal by 2050.

 Xi  said China was making its commitment although it is still developing economically. Richer countries should step up more, ,he said, evidently referring to the United States, under President Donald Trump, the only nation that rejected  the Paris Agreement. Incoming President Joseph Biden, however, has already announced he will bring the US back to the assembly  of nations that have vowed to reduce  their carbon emissions.

The Philippines is a minor contributor to the world’s carbon emissions but it has   vowed to do its part,  Last month, our Department of Energy declared a moratorium on its  endorsements for coal power plants. This should lead to “more opportunities for renewable energy to figure prominently in our country’s energy future,” Secretary of Energy Alfonso Cusi said.

The world is still in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic but  it  has not forgotten the other  problems it faces today, such as the climate problem that continues to worsen and threaten the lives of all people on our planet on a scale more massive than regional conflicts, hunger in so many nations, and even epidemics like the one  we are now beginning to overcome