Legarda appointed CVF Ambassador for Parliaments, Vows to Rally for Collective Climate Action through the Creation of a Parliamentary Union Among Vulnerable Countries

Deputy Speaker Loren Legarda was recently appointed by the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) as its ambassador for parliaments, together with H.E. Mohamad Nasheed of the Maldives (ambassador for ambition), Kathy Jetnil- Kijiner, Climate Envoy of the Marshall Islands (ambassador for culture), H.E. Rocio Aguilar, Former Minister of Finance of Costa Rica (ambassador for finance), Tosi Mpanu-Mpanu, Founder, LDC, Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Initiative (REEEI) for Sustainable Development of the Democratic Republic of Congo (ambassador for renewable energy) and Saima Wazed Hossain of Bangladesh, World Health Organization Expert Advisory Panel on Mental Health (ambassador for vulnerability).

“The CVF plays a very significant role in pushing for a more ambitious climate commitment that would deliver beneficial results to vulnerable countries. It is a platform that gives vulnerable countries the voice to urge the rest of the world to take urgent climate action,” Legarda said.

In a recent meeting with Abul Kalam Azad, Special Envoy of the Climate Vulnerable Forum Presidency, Legarda, a commissioner for the Global Commission on Adaptation (GCA), strongly supported the idea of creating a parliamentary union among the CVF nations, with the aim of forging a stronger bond and collective voice to advance the causes of vulnerable nations.

In 2008, Legarda, Asia Pacific Regional Champion and Global Champion for Resilience, steered a meeting of ten key parliamentarians from across Asia, Africa, the Americas and Europe in Manila on making disaster risk reduction a primary tool for climate change adaptation.

The “Manila Call for Action of Parliamentarians on Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation” was launched, which called on all parliamentarians of the world to make disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation a national priority and a key consideration in development planning.

In 2010, she also hosted a three-day UNISDR Consultative Meeting for Asian Parliamentarians with the theme, “Disaster Risk Reduction: An Instrument for Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)”. Legislators from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, Nepal, Philippines, and Thailand, sought to undertake concrete actions toward disaster-resilient development.

They pledged to lobby for an increase in national investment on disaster risk reduction initiatives and to facilitate direct access to international funds intended for climate change adaptation.

This convergence of ideas is embodied in The Manila Call for Action of Parliamentarians on Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation 2010.

“Through my acceptance to become an Ambassador for Parliaments of the CVF, I am committing to lend my unequivocal support to make sure that the message of urgent climate action is clear,” Legarda concluded.