Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) – The Palace struck a conciliatory tone towards former President Fidel Ramos’ scathing rebuke of President Rodrigo Duterte’s rejection of the international climate change pact .
Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said Ramos “agreed in principle with the President’s position” that it is the developed countries that carry the bigger burden of curbing their huge carbon emissions arising from their decades of growth.
However, “it is only in the approach or method the two leaders differ on the issue of climate change,” Andanar said in a text message to reporters on Monday.
“Each has his own style and we have to learn to respect the difference,” he added.
Andanar’s statement followed Ramos’ editorial October 29 in the Manila Bulletin where he expressed frustration over Duterte’s foot-dragging and unwillingness to ratify the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
Also read: President Duterte urged to ratify global pact on climate change
This global pact to curb global warming will be enforced on November 4.
“Since assuming the presidency on 30 June 2016, the DU30 administration, unfortunately, has done little to move the Paris Agreement forward so that the Philippines can be credited with having ratified this super-important agreement that would prolong mankind’s survival on planet Earth,” Ramos wrote in his article.
Duterte has criticized the global pact to curb global warming as “foolish” and “absurd.”
He said it unfairly hampers the development of countries like the Philippines that were not responsible for massive emissions of greenhouse gases now threatening the world’s climate.
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