Manila: President Rodrigo Duterte has ratified the 2015 United Nations (UN) environment pact that calls for limiting global warming and for countries to develop resilience strategies to fight extreme weather swings.

“I sent to the Senate, the Instrument of Ratification for the Paris Agreement,” said senior deputy executive secretary Meynard Guevarra, adding, “It was received by senator Loren Legarda, chair of the Senate Committee on Climate Change and UN Global Champion for Resilience.”

On July 19, 2016, Duterte was severely criticised for saying he would not honour the UN climate deal that calls for countries to work together to limit the temperature rise due to global warming under 2C (36F) and to cap temperatures at 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Before the May 2016 elections, Duterte accused the UN pact of requiring all developed and underdeveloped countries to equally cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

At the time, Duterte said he believed the Philippines (it contributes less than 1 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions) and other developing countries — recipients of second hand machines from countries that have profited from industrialisation of developing nations — were victims of targets unjustly imposed by the UN pact to equally cut greenhouse gas emissions.

In response to Duterte’s change of heart, senator Legarda said, “The Paris Agreement is very important for the Philippines, being one of the most vulnerable nations to impacts of climate change. Our ratification would allow us access to the Green Climate Fund.”

It may be recalled that Typhoon Haiyan, a category 4 storm, left more than 6,000 people dead in the central Philippines in late 2013.

“This is what we have been waiting for — for developed countries that are the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases [GHG] to aid vulnerable, low-emitting nations like the Philippines,” said Legarda, adding, “Once we fully ratify, we become part of the succeeding meetings about the Paris Agreement. It is to our advantage that we are in the talks so we can converge with fellow vulnerable nations on how we move forward and compel big greenhouse gas emitters to do their fair share.”

Lucille Sering, a former climate negotiator, added: “The Philippines’ action plan on climate change has always been contingent on financial and technology support it needs.”

The Philippines was among 195 countries that agreed in December 2015 to the UN pact to limit global warming below 2C (36F) and keep temperatures at 1.5C above pre-industrial levels; and for countries to develop better resilience strategies to fight climate change. A hundred countries signed the pact at New York’s UN headquarters on April 22, 2016.

The Paris Agreement came into force on November 4, 2016 after 55 countries responsible for 55 per cent of global emissions ratified it. Since the Philippines did not yet ratify the treaty at the time, it was an observer in the ceremonial first meeting of countries that ratified it, during climate negotiations in Marrakech, Morocco.

In January 2017, Duterte appointed senator Legarda the de facto chair of the first joint Climate Change Commission En Banc in a board meeting in Malcanang, the presidential palace. While coordinating with several climate organisations, she has, since then, been explaining to cabinet members and to Duterte’s economic team the meaning of the UN Paris Agreement.

Legarda was chair of the Permanent Committee and Oversight Committee on Climate Change and principal author of the Climate Change Act.