FACEBOOK on Tuesday announced the expansion of its climate science center to the Philippines, with the goal of connecting Filipinos with “factual resources” as part of its efforts to fight climate change.
“Facebook is committed to reducing our environmental footprint and elevating the latest climate science to our community while minimizing climate misinformation,” the social media platform said in an e-mailed statement.
The social media company said the climate science center will be expanded to more than 100 countries, including the Philippines.
“Through the climate science center, Facebook plays its part by helping people find accurate, science-led information, while also tackling misinformation,” it noted.
The center aims to connect Filipinos “with factual resources from the world’s leading climate organizations and actionable steps they can take in their everyday lives to combat climate change.”
Citing its recent survey with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, Facebook said 78% of the Filipino respondents considered climate change as an “extremely” or “very important” issue.
“More than eight in 10 Filipinos [said] they were ‘somewhat worried’ or ‘very worried’ about climate change,” it noted. Meanwhile, nearly nine in 10 wanted more information about climate change.
More than seven in 10 Filipinos said that climate change should be a “high” or “very high priority” for the government, while more than six in 10 said it should do more to address the problem.
At the same time, more than seven in 10 said the Philippines should use more renewable sources of energy.
“Seventy-six percent of Filipinos also think that action to reduce climate change will improve economic growth and provide new jobs,” Facebook noted.
At the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow last week, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said financing from multilateral institutions is crucial to encourage private sector capital in clean energy transition projects in the country.
Mr. Dominguez has been pushing for more climate financing from wealthy economies that have not offered enough to help developing nations reduce their carbon footprint.
Such countries bear the most responsibility for their historic emissions, he said.
The Philippines has committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 75% from 2020 to 2030.
Of the 75% target, just 2.71% can be achieved with internal resources, while the remaining 72.29% rests on international assistance.
The Finance department said extreme weather events have caused P506.1 billion in losses and damage to the Philippines over the past decade, highlighting the country’s vulnerability to the climate crisis even though it accounts for only 0.3% of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions. — Arjay L. Balinbin
