Climate Justice: Legarda to Davila, "Let's not put words in the president's mouth."

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Legarda clarified and corrected the common misinterpretations set on President Duterte's stand on the Paris Agreement. Veteran journalist Karen Davila wasn't spared during the one-on-one interview of the senator in ANC Headstart.

The Paris Agreement was made effective in the same day of the said interview of Karen Davila with Senator Loren Legarda. Both ladies came to tackle on Duterte's stand of the said agreement and on climate change.

Karen Davila wanted to put things into perspective on how the Paris Agreement would be served if pushed through when President Rodrigo Duterte himself is not bent on moving away from coal as immediately as the agreement required it to.

Senator Legarda came in with this answer:

"I hope you don't mind but may I just correct that statement. We should not put words in the President's mouth because to be fair to the President his position is climate justice and I am one with him on that."

"If you look at the 2009 speech that I did in the Global Humanitarian Forum of former Secretary General Kofi Annan in Geneva. My peg was exactly what President Duterte is saying, climate justice."

"We did not cause this. You industrialized nation should pay for it."

Duterte on Coal

"At this time when we're a million hundred population we can not immediately shut it out. However there is a transition. There is a phasing of a bias towards renewables."

Renewable Energy Act of 2008

"And we have an RE Law of 2008. In fact 30 percent of our energy-mix is for coal and 30 percent is for renewables."

Climate Justice in Climate Agreement

"It is really important to put this in perspective that the issue of climate justice is integrated in the climate agreement. The issue of climate justice were small nations, non-polluters have actually have the right to seek climate justice. That's embedded and mainstreamed in the climate agreement.That is why we are protected in the climate agreement."


It was known earlier that President Duterte had been critical against the Paris Agreement and had vehemently said that he would not honor its mandate. However, the President has softened his stance on the agreement after deliberation with his cabinet. Although he still had reservations on the matter, the overwhelming support of his cabinet to honor the said climate agreement made him ratify his decision.



To be fair with Karen, her vocal approach in asking questions made the interview informative as it tackled the real issues on climate change.