Averting the disastrous effects of climate change and global warming would require all hands on deck.
Chit Juan, founder of the pioneering sustainable ECHOstore; Vicky Abad, country manager of Ipsos Philippines, a global market research and consulting firm; and Manny Blas, vice president of the Estates Group of Ayala Land Inc. (ALI), agreed that these problems needed action from the government, every person and every business, big
and small.
Climate change, as it would affect everyone, needed a multi-sectoral, whole of nation, response.
At the recent Inquirer Project Rebound webinar on the topic “Securing a Sustainable Future”, Blas described climate change as an existential” threat to humankind and planet Earth. “It is the most challenging thing that the country and the planet are facing,” he said.
As the Philippines slowly moved to rebuild from the devastation of the corona virus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, Blas said the task should combine economic recovery and sustainable initiatives. The ALI executive quoted a statement that said, “(Doing) business as usual is economically risky and socially unacceptable.”
He pointed out that both consumers and investors now expected companies that they did business with to be environmentally responsible and to practice sustainability. A study found that millennials, in particular, were willing to pay more for products that were sustainable and to patronize businesses that practiced sustainability.
Juan noted that more and more enterprises “are developing better versions of their businesses”. She recalled that when they opened ECHOstore in 2008 and heralded it as a sustainable venture, many people could not even spell sustainability, much less understand what it meant.
Although Covid-19 had caused serious disruptions, Juan said it also helped fast-track sustainability. People started to reevaluate their lifestyles and to consider a more sustainable way of life. Sustainability was pushed up front.
Abad acknowledged that there was a greater understanding of sustainability. A survey showed that, in fact, majority of Filipinos feared the country was headed towards an environmental disaster and they worried about what was going to happen in the future. They considered climate change one of the top five risks the country was facing.
But she pointed out that the stresses caused by Covid-19 – loss of jobs, reduced incomes, health issues – made many people’s worries about environmental problems less urgent compared to the pressing problems they now faced. Less importance was given to sustainability as people scrambled to recover what they lost during the pandemic.
Abad stressed the need for the government to bridge the huge gap between knowing and doing among Filipinos. Even businesses that had taken the path of sustainability, she said, could help turn knowledge into action by communicating the reasons they were doing what they were doing and how it would benefit consumers and the public in general.
All the panelists agreed that every little environmentally responsible thing that people could do would help stave off a global disaster. As Blas pointed out, while COP26 (26th meeting of the Conference of Parties to the Paris environmental agreement) set goals for 2030 and 2050, this did not mean the effects of climate change would only be felt then.
Climate change, Juan said, was already happening. Areas that did not use to have floods were now facing the problem, a temperate country like Italy was now growing coffee and farmers could no longer “read” the weather.
Sustainability was not without its challenges. Blas pointed to the cost of shifting to renewable energy to achieve COP26’s goals, for instance. New technologies had to be developed to make certain industries, like construction, sustainable. Government would have to adopt regulations to encourage, even compel, everyone to take action to protect the environment.
Juan said individuals could do small, doable things even at home that would have an impact when added up, like waste segregation, and water and energy conservation. They could plant trees.
“You are never too small to make a difference.”
Abad stressed the need for effective communication. “The (sustainability) message has to be reframed and made more relevant after Covid-19. The more (people) understand, the more they will appreciate the initiatives being made.”
With the 2022 presidential elections coming up, the webinar panelists expressed the hope that the new leaders would be proactive in responding to the climate crisis.
“Politicians should understand climate change and how they could communicate (that problem),” Juan said. Abad said it was important to know the priorities of politicians and how committed they were to finding ways to ease the problem. “They should (let the people know) what they plan to do,” she said.
“I hope the new leaders will pursue (the commitments they made at COP26),” Blas said.
