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Makati City official offers a vision for a sustainable Philippines to reach the dream of a green Asia

Avila will be a participant at the upcoming session in the series The Asia We Want: Building Community Through Regional Cooperation. All participants were invited to share their vision for “the Asia we want.”

The Philippines is an archipelagic country endowed with both mineral and natural resources that have the potential to meet the basic needs of the people and to support a far more prosperous and equitable society – if it were not for the historical confluence of different factors: a legacy of colonial plunder and its current-day forms, the inability to address the roots of the worsening global climate crisis, and the failure of governance to address the ecological and socio-economic realities of our times. This is not only a reflection of my own country but more of a picture of the Asia we are.

Asia is a rich continent not only of its natural resources but of its people and its culture. The Asia we dream of is a haven of cultural integration, a venue for intellectual discourse, a place of economic progress, climate resilience and a green Asia.

However, this vision is not something we can achieve in a blink of an eye. This involves hard work, dedication, and collaboration. In my country, we are keen to address issues of the environment. In Makati City, for example, we make sure that economic advancement does not derail our efforts to protect the environment we live in. Makati, as a highly-urbanized city, focuses on managing its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The GHG Management Plan allows the city government to analyze the emissions produced within its geographic boundary and to identify appropriate climate change mitigation options through policies and programs. Using the inventory report as a backbone for a scientific baseline analysis of trends in GHG emissions, the plan serves as Makati City’s blueprint for climate change actions.

This is just one of the initiatives that we can impart to our neighboring countries in Asia. For us to achieve the Asia that we want, we need to start with achieving the country that we want. We need to make sure that where we live is a sanctuary not just for its people and culture, but also for our floras and faunas; a country where people are sensitive not only to their own needs but also to the needs of their surroundings. As Barry Commoner said: “The first Law of Ecology: Everything is connected to everything else.” We are but one in this world, interconnected and intertwined. What we do in our own country will ripple and multiply. This is how we can realize the country we dream of – and the Asia we want.

Marifrance R. Avila is currently the focal person for both climate change and water and the pollution section of the pollution control and regulation division of the city of Makati, the Philippines.

Session 591 - The Asia We Want: Building Community Through Regional Cooperation I - A Clean and Green Asia - is the first session of a new multi-year series held in partnership with the Japan Foundation. For more information on the Session, please click here. To keep up to date with the conversations taking place during the session on social media, follow #SGSasia.