Every year end, I make a summary of the significant local and global environmental news and issues. For 2022, here are the highlights which were culled from my columns:
In early January 2022, the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States said that 2021 was the sixth warmest year on record since 1880. According to NCEI, the Earth’s average land and ocean surface temperature in 2021 was 0.84 of a degree Centigrade above the 20th-century average. Ocean heat content, which describes the amount of heat stored in the upper levels of the ocean, was record high in 2021, surpassing the previous record high set in 2020.
On February 28 to March 2, the fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly hosted by the UN Environment Programme was held. The world’s ministers for the environment agreed to establish an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to set the terms of a treaty on plastic pollution by the end of 2024. The UN will then convene a conference to adopt the treaty.
The World Meteorological Organization released on May 18, 2022, its State of the Global Climate report for 2021. According to the report, four key climate change indicators – greenhouse gas concentrations, sea level rise, ocean heat and ocean acidification – set new records in 2021. It confirmed that the past seven years have been the warmest seven years on record. The average global temperature in 2021 was about 1.11 (± 0.13) ° C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average. The most recent seven years, 2015 to 2021, are the seven warmest years on record.
In April, President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law Republic Act 11684 which designates Mount Arayat in Pampanga as a protected landscape or area.
The mangrove planting project of Bonuan Boquig National High School in Dagupan City was shortlisted in the World’s Best School Prizes, Environmental Action category, by the international educational group T4 Education. They competed against nine other schools from different countries. In October, it was announced that the school won and got a $50,000 prize.
In July 2022, Ocean Conservancy, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., United States, issued an apology for a report released in September 2015 claiming that the Philippines, China, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam are the top five plastic polluters in the world. The controversial report was removed from their website.
The much-awaited Extended Producer Responsibility Act of 2022 or Republic Act No. 11898, lapsed into law on July 23, 2022. It amended RA 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, inserting a provision that institutionalizes extended producer responsibility as a practical approach to efficient waste management and adapts the concept of circular economy. The law requires large companies to adopt and implement policies for the proper management of plastic packaging wastes.
The U.S. made a historic move when President Joe Biden signed into law in August 2022 the ‘Inflation Reduction Act of 2022’ which targets to reduce the U.S. carbon emissions by roughly 40 percent by 2030.
On November 06 to 18, 2022, the United Nations Climate Change Conference or COP 27 was held in Egypt. Towards the end of the conference, it was announced that countries reached a historic decision to establish and operationalize a loss and damage fund, particularly for nations most vulnerable to the climate crisis. This was the issue being pushed by the Philippines and other climate-vulnerable countries.
Note that most of the news are related to climate change. It will probably remain as the major issue this year. In the Philippines, we expect the IRR of the Plastic EPR Law or RA 11898 to be released. It is a major development as far as plastic pollution is concerned.
Happy New Year everyone!