The Philippine government should take advantage of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic to aggressively push for solutions to expedite the implementation of the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGa), environment groups and climate justice advocates said.
Since the Philippine government made a commitment to change the world for the better through the UN SDG in 2015, lawyer Tony La Viña, of the Council for People’s Development and Governance (CPDG), said the setbacks in the realization of the SDGs were found to be hard to addressed through ordinary means.
“The pandemic and the accelerating climate crisis pushed us to actually consider the most radical solutions because that is what we need; solutions that go to the root,” said La Viña in an online forum.
The UN's SDG has 17 Sustainable Development Goals which 195 countries of the world had committed to work on in order to improve the lives of the people of the world by 2030. They are Eliminate Poverty, Erase Hunger, Establish Good Health and Well-Being, Provide Quality Education, Enforce Gender Equality, Improve Clean Water and Sanitation, Grow Affordable and Clean Energy, Create Decent Work and Economic Growth, Increase Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, Reduce Inequality, Mobilize Sustainable Cities and Communities, Influence Responsible Consumption and Production, Organize Climate Action, Develop Life Below Water, Advance Life On Land, Guarantee Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions, and, Build Partnerships for the Goals.
Of the 17 goals, the environment groups and climate justice advocates in the Philippines are particularly focused on the UN SDG 12, which is Responsible Consumption and Production (SCP), and the UN SDG 13, which is Climate Action.
The groups underscored that Responsible Consumption and Production is an integral part of mitigating the risks and reversing the adverse effects brought by climate change.
But they said the SDG 12 fails to address the profit-driven roots of unsustainable consumption and production while there has been low effectiveness of policies for environmental protection for SDG 13.
“The overall policy direction and even existing major initiatives and programs, are narrow, weak, and predominantly focused on efficiency and technological innovations. This is the approach favored by business and most policy makers,” said Lorelei Covero, program manager of IBON International.
“Sinasabing ang mga polisiya ng Pilipinas ay isa sa pinakamaganda sa buong mundo pero hindi natin nakikita na ang implementasyon nito ay out-of-tune sa ibang patakaran (It said that the Philippine policies are one of the best in the world but we do not see its implementation being out-of-tune with other policies),” said
Torres said, citing how the national aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is defeated by over-reliance on coal-based energy as an example," said Lia Torres, executive director of Center for Environmental Concerns (CEC), for her part.
Professor Reggie Vallejos, Samahan at Ugnayan ng mga Konsumer para sa Ikauunlad ng bayan (SUKI Network) which is an alliance of organizations for consumer issues, said that the problem is with corporate control over consumption and production.
“Limited ang pagtingin sa climate action ang purely environmental lang. Pag tinitignan natin ang climate action o climate justice, dapat tinitignan din ang tumitinding inequalities sa mamamayan (There is a limited view of climate action, which is purely environmental only. When we look at climate action or climate justice, we must also look at the growing inequalities of the people),” Vallejos said.
“Kailangang i-push ang democratic consumption and production systems na palagi yung mamamayan ang nasa sentro, lalo ang mga vulnerable sectors. Una rito ay ang pag-acknowledge sa rights and sovereignty nila (We must push for democratic consumption and production systems where the people are always at the center, especially the vulnerable sectors. The first is to acknowledge their rights and sovereignty),” he added.