Climate Expert urges action against plastic pollution at Earth Hour 2024

March 24, 2024

Lawyer Angela Consuelo “Gia” Ibay talks about plastic pollution at the Earth Hour Celebration at Kartilya ng Katipunan Monument in Manila on Saturday, March 23. (Photo by Christian Querol/The Manila Warden) 

A climate change expert urged more action against plastic pollution during the Earth Hour 2024 celebrations in Manila on Saturday, March 23.  

Lawyer Angela Consuelo “Gia” Ibay, head of the Climate Change and Energy Programme for the World Wide Fund  for Nature-Philippines (WWF-PH), said that their “No Plastics in Nature” initiative will focus on plastic pollution.  

“In the Philippines, around 35 percent of plastics that we generate get leaked back into the open environment. And that's what we wanna be able to reduce so that we ensure [...], there's very minimal plastic [...] that gets into the oceans,” Ibay said.  

Based on the data from WWF-PH's Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), the country produces 2.15 million metric tons of plastic per year, with sachets being a primary contributor. 

Ibay also specified that the participation of people in Earth Hour events continues to grow even after the pandemic and the “impact on climate change will be felt.” 

“People do act, and implement climate actions even at, at their own, you know, place of work in their houses. And they do it on a consistent basis. Because as much as we like to hold events like this, at the end of the day, the impact will be felt,” Ibay stated.  

“If we have cleaner air, cleaner water, [then] we have a climate that is stabilized and that is sustainable for future generations to live,” she added. 

Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Undersecretary Juan Miguel Cuna and Vice Mayor John Marvin “Yul Servo” Cruz Nieto also echoed Ibay’s statemen citing Ordinances 8371 and 8729, which aim to prevent further degradation of the environment through sustainable development and the authorization of environmental police protection from the Department of Public Service, respectively.  

Plastic Waste Management 

Meanwhile, WWF-PH's “Plastic Smart Cities” (PSC) is a four-year long project launched in 2021, which seeks to improve the waste collection system in the districts of Manila to decrease the plastic leakage in open environments. 

“Under the improvement of waste collection systems in the barangay, we train the household on waste segregation. In every barangay, we train 10 households,” said Luis Caraan, the project manager of WWF-PH. 

According to him, Manila’s concern is the garbage trucks that struggle to pass through narrow roads when collecting household trash. This leads to households piling garbage along main roads, which, in turn, leads to leakage of waste on roadsides. 

WWF-Philippines is also encouraging the implementation of City Ordinance 8282, which manages the low-value and high-value plastics. 

“Ito ‘yung mga straw, mga eating [utensils], mga polystyrene, so ‘yan ‘yung mga inaaddress nitong batas na ito,” Caraan explained.  

Manila’s First Earth Hour 

People gather in front of the stage of the awaited Earth Hour event at the Kartilya ng Katipunan Monument in Manila on Saturday, March 23. (Photo by Hazel Historia/The Manila Warden)

Manila hosted its first Earth Hour event partnered with WWF-PH despite being only a participant in past Earth Hour events. 

“We're very happy that Manila has really taken the leadership role in ensuring that we reduce plastic leakage into our oceans,” Ibay stated, encouraging other cities and provinces that have the “Plastic Smart Cities” project to hold their own Earth Hour. 

“There are a number of things that we also try to ensure that we do this event as environmentally friendly as possible. And we work closely with the City of Manila also to ensure that they themselves are also on board with it,” she added. 

The annual Earth Hour celebration was held at the Kartilya ng Katipunan Monument from 7:30 p.m. to 9:45 p.m.  

The event was hosted by Lawyer Gia Ibay, also featuring guests such as Manila Vice Mayor John Marvin “Yul Servo” Cruz Nieto and DENR Usec. Cuna. Earth Hour music ambassador and SB19 member John Paulo “Pablo” Bagnas Nase also performed during the event. 

Besides the main event, there were various booths focusing on sustainable living to keep guests occupied.  

Some of the booths were Food Rescue “Pagkain ng Tao, Pagkain ng Lupa”, Plan international “Hopetown Hero”, Oxfam “Patas na Bukas”, Smart Recycle, Save the Children, World Vision, Plastics by Automat, Brave Story, AirAware, EcoWaste Coalition Tapon to ipon by Coca-Cola, SalinPh “Grocery refilling store”, Mother Earth Foundation, Lampin Club, and WWF. 

The event also featured an acoustic night's session during the switch-off and a special performance post-Earth Hour by SB19 member Pablo to cap the 16th annual switch-off event. 

Earth Hour is an initiative of WWF that started as a lights-out event in Sydney, Australia, in 2007, with the Philippines joining a year later. 

Around 2000 people joined the event, according to the Manila Police District.