Killer air
December 5, 2021 | Editorial published by Philippine Daily Inquirer | READ THE STORY HERE A week into the initial COVID-19 lockdown in March last year, residents of Metro Manila, the country’s economic hub, looked out of their windows and saw clear, blue skies and pronounced skylines they hadn’t seen in decades. With people locked inside their homes after public and private vehicles were banned from the roads, and business operations such as factories and construction activities halted, the metropolis’ notoriously noxious air cleared for once. But it wasn’t for long, because as soon as restrictions were partially lifted in [...]
Mainstreaming gender and climate strategies and the Mandanas-Garcia Ruling
By Danica Marie Supnet The COVID-19 pandemic and climate change continue to challenge the capacities of developing countries such as ours. The Philippines is among the most vulnerable to long-term climate risks and our healthcare system has been heavily strained by the pandemic. This shows us that “global shocks” do not wait in line. They may happen at the same time which makes the impacts of each, including its economic implications, far worse. The Climate Change Commission noted that “the Philippines needs USD 12 to 15 billion of climate finance to meet our Nationally Determined Contributions by 2030”. Multilateral development [...]
Clean air advocates say updates required for PHL air quality norms
November 10, 2021 | Published by BusinessWorld | READ THE STORY HERE Air quality standards are falling behind international norms, with the two-decade-old Clean Air Act not up to the task of minimizing untimely death as a result of substandard air, clean air advocates said in a report. The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) said in their report that neglecting air quality costs the Philippines P4.5 trillion a year and may have inflated the pandemic death and illness count by up to 15%. “Air quality is [...]
IMF urged to create new trust to bolster work on climate resilience
by Andrea Shalal, editing by Aurora Ellis | October 4, 2021 | Published by Reuters | READ THE STORY HERE WASHINGTON, Oct 4 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) should create a new instrument that lets richer countries channel their newly created IMF reserves to help a broader set of countries tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, a new task force said Monday. IMF officials have sought for months to rally support for a new Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST) that its members could use to donate or lend their share of $650 billion in newly issued Special Drawing Rights [...]
Advancing local climate action amid COVID-19
by Elainne Lopez and Orland Quesada Editor’s note: Elainne Lopez is an analyst of ICSC’s Climate Governance Team and a geodetic engineer. Orland Quesada is ICSC's community outreach officer and gender focal point under the RE-Charge Pilipinas program. They were both part of the team which conducted workshops on gender, health, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), and climate in Guiuan, Eastern Samar last March 2021 under the Women and Earth Initiative (WORTH) of the Asian-Pacific Resource & Research Centre for Women (ARROW). Orland: In March 2020, ICSC’s Climate Governance and RE-Charge Pilipinas teams were already set to [...]