Coherence and convergence: Key to managing risks and achieving sustainable development

In 2015, two dominant themes that guided multilateral work were that of sustainable development and managing risks better as a global community.

There were four framework agreements that resulted from four separate multilateral processes – the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (Sendai, March); the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development (Addis Ababa, July); the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (New York, September); and the Paris Agreement on climate change (Paris, December).

Preserving heritage structures

VENICE – “Are we demolishing buildings before we have had time to fall in love with them?” The rhetorical question was posed by Sudarshan Kadkha Jr. while contemplating on the fate that lately befell the iconic structures that used to dot the skylines of Metro Manila. Kadkha is a 45-year-old Filipino-Nepalese architect who was born and raised in the Philippines.

The ghost of old buildings

All in three rooms, the Philippines’ historic debut at the International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia tells the world the story of our public spaces and structures, their past, their present, and their possible future, as well as ours.

Legarda warns of coal-fired power plants

SENATOR Loren Legarda expressed alarm on Saturday over the adverse environmental impacts of coal-fired power plants in the country, thus she urged the government to tap cleaner and less wasteful sources of energy.

“Our goal to reduce carbon emissions will be impossible if we will continue to allow the construction and operation of additional coal-fired power plants, the nation’s top source of greenhouse gas emissions and the primary cause of global warming,” Legarda, chair of Senate climate change committee, said in a statement.