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b. Declare a Climate and Environmental Alert
The government must recognize the need for urgent measures to address
the impacts of climate change. There must be an acknowledgement that
anthropogenic climate change, if left unmitigated, can and will lead to
global extinction; that existing measures to combat its consequences must
be improved; and that long-term measures for adaptation, mitigation, and
resiliency must be translated to concrete actions.
The declaration must specify in no uncertain terms the need to address
climate action as a national priority and require the (a) mainstreaming
of climate science and climate response into national and local policies
and legislation; (b) alignment of sectoral development priorities and
socioeconomic development plans with climate targets; (c) mobilization
and proper allocation of international and domestic financial resources; (d)
involvement of the private sector in climate actions; and (e) the immediate
and just transition to a low-carbon economy.
c. Revisit the NDC
The NDC mentions GHG mitigation targets for the agriculture, wastes,
industry, transport, and energy sectors but fails to mention the forestry
sector–seemingly disregarding the importance of forest covers as effective
carbon sinks, and the contribution of deforestation and change in land cover
to the net release of CO2 and rise in global temperatures.610 The Commission
recommends the revision of the NDC to include the forestry sector in GHG
mitigation–not just adaptation targets.
The Commission also recommends including sectoral baseline data to serve
as a basis for the evaluation of the effectiveness of climate policies and projects
for each sector.
610
IPCC, 2019: Climate Change and Land: An IPCC Special Report on Climate Change, Desertification,
Land Degradation, Sustainable Land Management, Food Security, and Greenhouse Gas Fluxes
in Terrestrial Ecosystems [P.R. Shukla, J. Skea, E. Calvo Buendia, V. Masson-Delmotte, H.-O.
Pörtner, D. C. Roberts, P. Zhai, R. Slade, S. Connors, R. van Diemen, M. Ferrat, E. Haughey,
S. Luz, S. Neogi, M. Pathak, J. Petzold, J. Portugal Pereira, P. Vyas, E. Huntley, K. Kissick, M.
Belkacemi, J. Malley, (eds.)]. In press.
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