This has been a good week for climate change in the Philippines. Finally, after months of uncertainty, the Philippine government has decided to move forward on the ratification of the Paris Agreement. This was decided in a meeting of the Climate Change Commission convened by President Rodrigo Duterte last Tuesday, January 31. Senator Loren Legarda, the longtime environmental and climate change champion in the legislature, was also at the meeting. In a press statement, Legarda praised President Duterte, “Under the Climate Change Act, there are three commissioners of the CCC and the chairperson is no less than the President of the Philippines.

La Viña, T. (2017, February 4). Good work by Duterte on climate change. Manila Standard, p. A5.