UK: PHL should join carbon trading market

With over a thousand open dump sites, the Philippines should engage in the global carbon trading market, the British government said Wednesday. The Philippines is in a better position to take advantage of the carbon trading market that has global revenue amounting to $5 trillion, British Ambassador Stephen Lillie said in a seminar on waste management solutions. “I very much hope that we will see more partnership between the UK and the Philippines to tap into this huge market in environmental technology and low carbon solutions," Lillie said. In 2000, the Philippines’ waste sector emitted more than 11,000 gigagrams of greenhouse gases, United Kingdom Trade and Investments director Derek Page said. According to the UN High-Level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing, “this amount of waste is possibly worth P498 million a year in the carbon market," Page noted. Tapping the business aspect of carbon market from waste management will substantially raise the country’s compliance rate to the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, Environment Undersecretary Demetrio Ignacio Jr. said. He said that the country has a low “2.7-percent rate of compliance to the solid waste management law. In effect, we have a 97.3-percent violation 10 years after the law was signed." Ignacio pointed out that only 70 percent of the country’s garbage is collected and disposed of — mostly in open dumpsites which are absolutely hazardous to the environment. “This is a problem in a country where 30,000 tons of garbage are generated every day," he said. British firms — Arup, Revonergy Inc., and Stericycle Inc. — have met with domestic partners and nongovernment organizations to explore partnerships on technology sharing and waste management expertise. “We have made significant investment in research and development… to offer a wide range of cutting-edge, innovative, and transferable environmental technologies and other low-carbon solutions," Lillie said. The Kyoto Protocol allows rich countries with the highest greenhouse gas emissions to explore partnerships with developing countries through the Clean Development Mechanism. Lillie pointed out that the Philippines can take advantage of the partnership. “Waste management in the Philippines is a key issue that needs to be addressed. It is a major cause of water pollution and flooding, the biggest problems facing the country [today]," he said. — JE/VS, GMANews.TV