Legarda Highlights Climate Vulnerable Forum’s Role to Ensure 1.5 Degrees Celsius Limit Goal

Senator Loren Legarda has emphasized the important leadership role of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) in pushing for greater sense of urgency in achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Legarda, United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) Global Champion for Resilience and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) National Adaptation Plan Champion, met with CVF leaders and colleagues from Germany, the principal supporter of the secretariat of the CVF and the Vulnerable Twenty Group of Ministers of Finance (V20) since 2015, in Washington D.C. at the sidelines of the 2018 Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group.

“The CVF has been a strong voice in pushing for a more ambitious climate pact that would deliver results. When other nations said we should limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, CVF countries pushed for the more ambitious goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius to survive and thrive. And they listened to us because we are the most vulnerable to climate change impacts and we have the right to demand the kind of action that the world must take,” Legarda stressed.

The CVF Troika had a series of conversations with partner countries to advance the work program of vulnerable developing countries leading up to the 24th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP24) this year in Poland.

The Senator urged CVF members to resume its work and support Ethiopia (outgoing CVF chair) and the Marshall Islands (incoming chair) to deliver the CVF’s highly ambitious but achievable activity program.

“We need strengthened collaboration with Germany and other partner countries on the basis of mutual trust and respect, which will redound to the revival of a more active CVF and V20. We need to bring back momentum to the CVF to also bring back momentum to global action on climate change,” Legarda added.

It will be recalled that the Philippine Government, during its chairmanship of the CVF, has taken an active role in initiating the establishment of the V20, a high-level policy dialogue and action group that hopes to address the critical challenge of climate change more assertively through innovative financing and technology.

“I am proud that the Philippines, when it was CVF chair, played a central role in rallying developing countries behind the Paris Agreement. We are very proud of what has been achieved in the previous years and believe there is enormous potential to continue to create positive contribution together. The CVF is so precious because it is the moral backbone of the climate fight. We needed it in the past, we need it now, and we will need it in the future,” Legarda concluded.