In celebration of this year’s World Environment Day, Senator Loren Legarda is urging everyone to contribute in the improvement of air quality by implementing environmental laws and avoiding causes of air pollution in households, industries, and workspaces.
Legarda said World Environment Day which is marked every June 5, seeks to encourage worldwide awareness and action to protect the environment. This year’s theme focuses on “air pollution” and a campaign to #BeatAirPollution.
“My message since the beginning has always been simple and clear: protecting our environment is protecting human health. We have the Philippine Clean Air Act, the Renewable Energy Act, and other environmental laws, which we must fully implement. These are not recommendatory policies. These are laws meant to save lives and improve the well being of all Filipinos,” said the seasoned legislator who authored the country’s landmark laws on environmental protection–Clean Air Act, Ecological Solid Waste Management Law, Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act, Clean Water Act, Environmental Awareness and Education Act, Renewable Energy Act, Climate Change Act, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act, People’s Survival Fund Act, and Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas.
“Protecting our environment is protecting human health.”
Citing figures from the World Health Organization, the veteran lawmaker said nine out of 10 people worldwide breathe polluted air and that an estimated 7 million people die every year from exposure to fine particles in polluted air that penetrate into their lungs and cardiovascular system.
“Nine out of 10 people worldwide breathe polluted air.”
According to the United Nations, the energy production industry is a leading source of air pollution, with coal-burning power plants and diesel generators as major areas of concern, as well as the global transport sector accounting for almost one-quarter of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions.
Moreover, open waste burning and organic waste in landfills release harmful gases in the atmosphere and around 24 percent of all greenhouse gases emitted worldwide come from agriculture, forestry, and land-use.
The lady senator also noted that, at the household level, the indoor burning of fossil fuels, wood, and other biomass-based fuels to cook, heat, and light homes account for around 3.8 million premature deaths, majority of which are in developing countries.
“May this year’s celebration of World Environment Day further remind us of our connection with the environment and our responsibility to take care of it as a means to ensure human safety, health, and well being,” she said.