No more air travel for DFA officials to climate change forums — Locsin
By Charmaine A. Tadalan, Reporter
FOREIGN AFFAIRS Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin, Jr. on Wednesday said the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) will not allow its officials to attend climate change conferences “requiring air travel.”
President Rodrigo R. Duterte last week criticized climate change efforts in the international community and their toll on the very phenomenon.
“Following Duterte’s answer to UN’s plea for yet another stronger stand against climate change-which he branded as more hot air-I am rejecting all official participation in climate change conferences requiring air travel,” Mr. Locsin said in a social media post, Wednesday.
The Secretary also said the Philippines will vote in the affirmative on climate-change proposals without discussions.
“We’ll just vote Yes to radical proposals. No more talk,” he said.
Mr. Locsin was among the delegation that joined the President in his official visit to Japan last week. In his speech last Friday at the 25th International Conference on the Future of Asia in Tokyo, Mr. Duterte said, “Let’s stop kidding each other or else we are just wasting the time and the money of the people coming back and forth to these conferences, which has not improved (the climate-change situation) a bit since we started to talk about it.”
He recalled during his speech sacking members of his Cabinet for their frequent attendance in climate change conferences.
