LA UNION, Philippines — On August 16, Bauang town in La Union became the first local government in northern Luzon to declare a state of climate emergency. While various groups welcomed this as a crucial step in combating climate change, Mayor Eulogio Clarence Martin P. De Guzman III viewed it as a formality.
“We declared a climate emergency with the first planting of bakawan (mangrove),” he said, reflecting on the town’s decade-long reforestation program.
The announcement...