Dr. Ed Alabastro presenting paper at the A&WMA San Francisco Convention.

Dr. Ed Alabastro and Medi Fernando, officers of KKK and also of Air & Waste Management Association (A&WMA) presented papers in the A&WMA for a held in San Francisco, California and in Manila articulating the following:

• Support of the principle of "co-benefits" in ghg mitigation strategies for low ghg emitting and emerging economies, consistent with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), as cited in its Fourth Assessment Report (2007) with related actions already undertaken e.g.
• The Philippines "LEAP FROM FRAGMENTED AND HALTING TO FOCUSED INITIATIVES" for Renewable Energies pronounced years ago may now find fulfilment with the recent (2012) approval of the Feed-In-Tariff Formula.
• Since the energy crisis in the '70s Philippine Industries have embarked on more energy-efficient technologies. Several waste-to-energy projects, e.g. in cement plants have been instituted; energy balances in Philippine refineries have been optimized.
• Tree plantation with attendant soil erosion mitigation is a common rehabilitation measure for mining operations.

Note has been made that given the very small ghg inventory of the country (of approximately 0.24 % of the world's) and its extreme vulnerability to climate change induced disasters, focus on adaptation as supported by the government is a sound rationale.

Science-based methodologies can further improve the understanding/inventory of the climate change agents, e.g. (a) CO2 capture by the seas which is highly applicable in the Philippines of small land area but of thousand islands (b) contribution of water vapour (c) effects of black carbon and (d) global inventory of non-registered sectors such as the airline industries whose ghg was estimated to be equivalent to the entire ASEAN countries.

Culture and social patterns were given notes e.g., the Philippine habit of mall shopping with attendant high energy resource requirement.

On e-vehicles for the Philippines, while noting the obvious benefits from the air quality perspectives it was suggested in various for a that (a) an energy cycle would be ideal to confirm the net ghg reduction from e-vehicles and (b) it will serve the country well to validate sources of lithium ion for batteries to ensure country independence.