President Rodrigo Duterte said yesterday that the Philippines will not honour its commitments under a historic agreement concluded last year in Paris that seeks to avoid catastrophic climate change.
“You are trying to stifle us… and tell us we are limited to this and that. That’s stupid. I will not honour that,” Mr Duterte said, recalling an encounter he had with an “ambassador” who pressed him about Manila’s commitments to the climate change deal.
“He told me, ‘You signed it’. I told him, ‘That’s not my signature.”
He did not name the envoy, but said: “I wanted to kick him.” He expressed these sentiments after attending an official event.
The Philippines was among 178 nations that signed an agreement, reached in Paris in December last year, that commits nearly every nation to take domestic actions to tackle climate change.
