Legarda Stands with Women-led #MAD4Survival Campaign

MADRID, Spain – Deputy Speaker and Lone District of Antique Representative Loren Legarda delivered an impassioned statement at the press event for the Madrid Ambition Drive for Survival (#MAD4Survival), organized by the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), 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.

Legarda, Head of the Philippine Delegation to COP25, joined fellow panelists—including Ms. Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, Climate Envoy of the Marshall Islands, Ms. Shanchita Haque, Counsellor of the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to the UN, and Ms. Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation—to call for enhanced ambition of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) by 2020.

The campaign has been launched online and garnered support from various world leaders, such as Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa, UN Human Rights Chief Michelle Bachelet.

In her speech, Legarda asked governments and citizens to support the Madrid Ambition Drive for Survival. She also amplified the demand for world leaders to deliver far stronger climate action by 2020.

“We live in an upside down world. Today, children have stepped forward to lead. Today, as our world burns, adults expected to act like leaders behave like children. When our youth demand action from those with the means to stave off this crisis, the rich and the powerful gaze at their navels, seemingly in love with the illusion they can bring their wealth to the afterlife,” Legarda said.

“Today we stand together before you—an all-women’s panel—to represent both defiance and hope. Our very composition reflects our own statement, for by doing so we highlight a truth too many have ignored. Those who have contributed the least to the problem bear the heaviest burden. And yet within vulnerable nations are people who are even more vulnerable. Let us name them. They are called women,” Legarda added.

Legarda expressed that the world already has the scientific knowledge and technology to implement the Paris Agreement and keep temperatures to the prescribed 1.5C threshold, which vulnerable countries fought for knowing that keeping to 1.5 will be barely enough to allow us to return eventually to a pathway where the climate is stabilized.

“We also know that we can do far more, if only the means to implement ‘Paris’ is provided. So we are here as well in Madrid to demand developed countries to live up to their financial obligations. We ask those who insist they are still in to fulfil the entirety of their commitment to the Paris Agreement. Reduce emissions far faster and far earlier, but also deliver your financial commitments. Anything less is not leadership,” Legarda said.

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