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LLB – II
October 16, 2017
A Reaction Paper
As a law student, then, I believe that the role of the legal profession in addressing
climate change is to promote and recruit more active environmental lawyers so that what
needs to be addressed will not only be by-passed but acted upon. As future lawyers, we
should be not merely take the environmental law course as mere side dish; it should take
major consideration in the academe. In the recent USC-NEDA Philippine Development Plan
held this month, one of the speakers relayed natural and man-made disasters inhibit the
sustainability of economic growth. I believe this is due to the perverted view we have on our
environment in light of the economic aspect. We have succumbed to the bandwagon belief,
which in actuality is a form of unbelief, that the environment should be used to boost our
economy; that should not be the case. Instead, we should rethink why in the first place we
have high GDP rates and yet fall short in employment rates. One major reason pointed out by
the NEDA is that environmental disasters can easily sweep away the temporary economic
gains acquired through labour. The environment itself is speaking to us, that we should not
take it lightly. We have to establish sustainable development, and I believe there is no other
way to start it off but through environmental development. It is then the role of the legal
profession to make legislation more relatable, not merely focusing on national objectives, but
presenting with emphasis to the common citizen how to think globally while acting locally.
Some environmental laws are just too broad and penalties are too high for some criminal acts
or omissions, but regardless of that, I think we should start shifting our concern on the
implementation; at the end of the day, laws usually become futile because of improper
implementation. Lawyers should advice local leaders about the concrete ways to really
implement the environmental laws locally through ordinances with conscionable penalties
and instructions which are attainable by the community, especially by the poor. The legal
profession should even be mandatorily involved in climate change, and not just to be offered
to lawyers who are interested. It is a global concern, and while laws are loosely executed
without pointing out the blunders in such implementation, we can never really witness
apparent outcomes from the international treaties concerning global warming and climate
change.