How much to save the world?

BEST PRACTICES

- BRIAN POE LLAMANZARES

The United Nations (UN) Framework Convention on Climate Change's (FCCC) twenty-ninth Conference of the Parties (COP29) just ended and apparently we need One Point Three (OPT) trillion dollars (USD 1.3 trillion or P76.56 trillion) annually by 2035 to achieve our sustainability goals, to enable definitive shifts from fossil fuels to clean energy, and for enhanced institutionalized climate financing for the world's most vulnerable.

At COP29's 11th hour, circumstances were altered. Developed nations committed only USD 250 billion by 2035. Several envoys, experts, and observers criticized it as "unacceptable," "inadequate," and "insulting." Clearly, OPT remains a contested New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG). It's nevertheless considered by multiple experts an acceptable evidence-based amount to replace the insufficient USD 100 billion target, which was set in 2009 and expires in 2025. Projections had ranged from USD 200 billion to USD 5 trillion.

For perspective, USD 1.3 trillion is nearly thrice as large as the entire Philippine economy (estimated at USD 470 billion, 2024), but only about one percent of the global economy (est. at USD 105 trillion, 2023). The figures show that, even if we wanted to do so, the Philippines (the world's most vulnerable country to climate change and a developing country) is incapable of solving the problem alone; but, together, the world can.