Legarda urges ASEAN to redefine development in climate era

Senator Loren Legarda, speaking as the 83rd Lee Kuan Yew Exchange Fellow and the fifth from the Philippines since its establishment in 1991, delivered a powerful public lecture calling on ASEAN nations to rethink development in the face of the climate crisis, placing resilience, ecological stewardship, and human dignity at the core of progress.

Addressing the ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute, and its Philippine Studies and Climate Change in Southeast Asia Programmes, Legarda honored Singapore’s visionary governance, crediting Lee Kuan Yew’s early recognition of water scarcity, land limits, and global positioning as key to the nation’s rise.

“True nation-building rests not only on physical infrastructure but on the architecture of governance, the stewardship of resources, visionary long-term planning, and ensuring the dignity of people,” Legarda said.

The four-term senator drew sharp contrasts with the Philippines, noting that global risk assessments have consistently placed the Philippines at the very top of climate-vulnerable nations for the past three years. “A single typhoon can erase billions in agricultural output, shatter infrastructure, and wipe out years of human development gains,” she explained.

Yet Legarda emphasized resilience and renewal. “We only have to shift these burdens so they can be shared more equitably, and we will be able to see massive productivity, love of people and country, and a flourishing nature-based economy.”

Calling climate change “the governance challenge of our generation,” Legarda outlined the human and cultural stakes of food insecurity, displacement, and ecological loss. Rejecting resignation, she said: “Climate change will not limit us; it must compel us to think differently, act decisively, and transform profoundly.”

She cited landmark laws she has championed including the Climate Change Act, Renewable Energy Act, Clean Air Act, Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, and the Philippine Ecosystem and Natural Capital Accounting System (PENCAS) Act of 2023, as examples of embedding climate into development. In her words, “legislation, at its core, is not only technical; it is moral.”

Acknowledging policy contradictions, she pointed to continued reliance on polluting technologies and car-centric infrastructure but expressed hope for a generational shift. “If all this chaos does not lead us to a future more geared towards a circular economy, reliant on nature instead of concrete and corruption, only then will I give up. At this point, I am far from giving up.”

Legarda introduced pending legislation to complete the country’s resilience architecture, including pending bills on the blue economy, low-carbon transition, plastic taxation, circular economy, and coastal protection. These, she stressed, carry regional implications: “When the Philippines invests in our ecosystems, we also invest in the health of ASEAN’s shared seas and Asia-Pacific’s shared atmosphere.”

She further called for ASEAN-wide coherence in standards for circular economy, disaster response, and resilient infrastructure. “This requires a shift in governance itself—one that moves away from fragmentation to coherence, from short-term gains to long-term stewardship, from rebuilding after disasters to designing from a position of strength at the start.”

Closing her lecture, she challenged ASEAN to scale Singapore’s discipline and vision across the bloc. “Progress must be redefined, not by what we extract, but by what we sustain; not by the wealth of a few, but by the dignity of all. Let our legacy be nothing less than transformation and transcendence.”

The Fellowship Program for Senator Legarda runs from September 11 to 14, 2025, organized by the Lee Kuan Yew Exchange Fellowship in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This private, non-political, and non-profit organization honors Singapore’s first Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, for his remarkable contributions to the country’s development and welcomes exceptional leaders committed to advancing development and international goodwill. (30)