MANILA – China is supporting the stand of developing nations, including the Philippines, that they should be exempted from contributing funds for the worldwide campaign against global warming and other issues related to climate change, a senior member of the House of Representatives said.
Congressman Jose de Venecia Junior of Pangasinan province in Northern Luzon said he received a letter from Yu Qintai, China’s special representative to climate change negotiations, who informed him that Beijing agrees with the Philippine stand for such exemption.
Experts agree that financing will be one of the toughest issues that can disrupt the international conference on global warming that is to start Monday in Copenhagen, Denmark.
De Venecia, the former House speaker, revealed he earlier wrote two Chinese leaders, President Hu Jin Tao and Premier Wen Jiabao, for the implementation of a “debt for environment†proposal in which creditor states would convert debt service payments of debtor countries to help finance the campaign against global warming.
These projects, De Venecia said, would include massive reforestation, water conservation, alternative energy, mass housing, health education and social infrastructure particularly to improve the lives of the world’s poorest of the poor.
The senior lawmaker also pointed out that developing countries, like the Philippines, stand to gain from the proposal because its debt service payments may be reduced by half which, in turn, could be used to finance these projects.
He said he told the Chinese leaders that the Philippines is among the highly-indebted countries which is still recovering from the two super typhoons that devastated the nation in September and October this year.
If his proposal is accepted by lenders, De Venecia pointed out that this would free up to the equivalent of $30 billion a year in principal and interest payments.
De Venecia said he believes the most difficult aspect in the Copenhagen conference is that newly industrializing countries are unwilling to accept internationally binding emission reduction targets without financial or technical compensation to achieve the economic costs of achieving its targets.
In his letter, De Venecia said Yu told him he was correct in stressing that the financial component of the climate change efforts could make or break the Copenhagen conference which is to be attended by leaders or their representatives from both the developed and developing world.
Yu, De Venecia said, also wrote him that “developed countries should fulfill their obligations…of providing financial resources to the developing countries and the developing countries should not be required to provide funds in any form.â€
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