LEADERS of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) will push for greater commitments to eliminating barriers on trading environmental goods and services to enhance use of clean technologies, as widespread devastation from recent calamities in member-countries, particularly the Philippines, has shown the urgency of addressing climate change.

Issues on climate change, sustainable recovery efforts on the  global financial crisis and plans to adopt an Asia-Pacific Free Trade Agreement (FTA-AP) will dominate discussions in the Apec Leaders’ Meeting in Singapore from November 14 to 15. The meeting will also focus discussions on putting up social safety nets to help the more vulnerable segments of society amid the global economic crisis.

“We will work together to strengthen the momentum towards strong, sustainable and balanced global economic growth, as set out at the recent G-20 Summit in Pittsburg. We will maintain our economic stimulus policies until a durable economic recovery is secured,” according to a draft statement of the Apec leaders.

The leaders are thus expected to veer away from the initial strategies of bailouts of giant firms going bankrupt, and instead focus on the “social and distributional impact of the recovery or stimulus packages.” These include measures such as upgrading workers’ skills and developing small and medium enterprises, particularly in developing economies like the Philippines.

A Philippine paper for the meeting said, “The Philippines supports an inclusive growth agenda anchored on structural adjustment and social resilience measures. A holistic approach involving SME development, enhancing labor market flexibilities, building sustained economic security for all and designing incentive-compatible social safety nets is essential in a broad-based inclusive growth program.”

The leaders noted that even in the face of the global financial crisis, “talent shortages abound. In fact, recovery from the crisis has been slowed by the lack of qualified workers all over the world....Apec has finally paid due attention to labor-market flexibilities as a necessity in fostering sustainable and inclusive growth.”  

The meeting, with the theme, “Sustaining growth, connecting the region,” aims to adopt measures to address climate change “consistent with keeping global trade and investment open and free.”

The regional bloc, convening a month ahead of the United Nations Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change, said reducing barriers to trade and investments in environmental goods and services (EGS) is critical to achieving commitments on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“We commit to refrain from introducing new barriers or market distortions in EGS. We also commit to rationalize and phase out the medium-term fossil-fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption and undermine efforts to combat climate change, while recognizing the importance of providing those in need with essential energy services,” said the draft leaders’ statement, a copy of which was obtained by the BusinessMirror.

The Philippines is expected to raise measures being done at the national level to avert the impact of increasing threats posed by climate change to people’s security, including the passage of the Climate Change Act of 2009 that mainstreams climate change and disaster risk reduction in the national development planning programs.

“[But] as climate takers, we cannot do it alone. Like the global economic crisis, climate change is an enormous challenge that needs a coordinated preemptive as well as reactive response,” said an Apec document.

It added that the Philippines, which ranked first in the World Bank report on disaster-risk index for typhoons, is pinning much hope on the successful conclusion of the climate-change negotiations in Copenhagen.

More than 500 people died, 4.9 million people left homeless and P8 billion worth of infrastructure was damaged due to typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng that struck the country in late September and early October.

The Apec document noted that achieving the pathway to limiting global average temperature increase to within 2 degrees celsius requires that “all economies consistent with their common and differentiated responsibilities.”

However, the Philippines is expected to push for Apec’s work to reach a common understanding of issues that relate to the negotiations on EGS at the World Trade Organization (WTO) owing to the existing “unilateral measures by rich economies that restricts the exports of developing economies and negatively affect the workers of these sectors, thus hindering the social and economic development of emerging economies.”

The Philippines, said one Apec document, “fully supports Apec initiatives to make environmental goods and services more accessible in Apec region, particularly the developing member-economies. This can further facilitate access and adoption of clean technologies to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions,” said an Apec document. 

WTO Director General Pascal Lamy will attend the Apec Leaders’ Meeting in Singapore to persuade the officials to return to the Doha negotiations of the WTO that seeks to facilitate global trade and investments that are crucial in addressing issues on financial turmoil and climate change.

“We recognize that Apec’s work on EGS is highly valuable in view of the forthcoming Copenhagen Summit in December,” said the Apec document.

“The discussions in Apec will likewise be most helpful in WTO services negotiations as the primary forum for finding a common ground in regard to the definition and product coverage of environmental goods and services,” it added.

Apec is composed of 21 economies: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong-China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese-Taipei, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.