Legarda: Let’s Operationalize Adaptation Down to the Last Mile

MADRID, Spain – Deputy Speaker and Lone District of Antique Representative Loren Legarda, who is also a Commissioner of the Global Commission on Adaptation (GCA), said that the GCA must operationalize adaptation to the smallest and most far-flung communities, down to the last mile.

Legarda made the statement on December 10 at the High-Level Forum of the GCA’s Convening Countries: Raising Ambition Ahead of the 2020 Climate Adaptation Summit, held at the sidelines of the 25th Session of the Conference of Parties (COP25) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Madrid, Spain, where Legarda serves as Head of the Philippine Delegation.

In her intervention, Legarda said that the GCA’s flagship report, titled “Adapt Now: A Global Call for Leadership on Climate Resilience”, must guide all parliaments around the world. She also enumerated ten local adaptation practices in the Philippines which she helped mainstream in the national budget, as Chair of Senate Committee on Finance, and which other countries can also implement.

These recommendations include: (1) harvesting rainwater for household and community use; (2) establishment of food gardens; (3) constructing roadside ditches to mitigate floods; (4) harnessing solar and other renewable energy; (5) reducing waste to zero and refusing single-use plastics; (6) planting mangroves and sea grass beds; (7) promoting climate fields schools and resilient livelihoods for farming and rural communities; (8) promoting use of indigenous knowledge and women leadership roles; (9) knowing local risks to natural hazards and improving early warning and ensuring early action; and (10) building the capacity of local communities on emergency preparedness, response, and early recovery.

“I am sure all our Ministers and Commissioners from other countries have ten more to offer. Let us continue engaging the youth to help and join us in implementing local adaptation action. Let’s operationalize adaptation to the most basic level, to the smallest and most far-flung communities, down to the last mile. Only then can we ably say that the GCA has been successful in translating adaptation into urgent climate action,” Legarda concluded.

The forum is convened by the Kingdom of the Netherlands and hosted by Minister Cora Van Nieuwenhuizen, Infrastructure and Water Management Ministry of the Netherlands. It calls upon the convening countries of the GCA to raise ambitions and contribute to the Year of Action, starting in September 2019 and culminating in the Climate Adaptation Summit in October 2020.

The event was moderated by Dr. Patrick Verkooijen, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Global Center on Adaptation.

Legarda is a UNEP Laureate, UNISDR Global Champion for Resilience, UNFCCC National Adaptation Plan Champion, and Member of the Governing Board to the Green Climate Fund.