Legarda urges climate-resilient urban transformation

Senator Loren Legarda, a leading voice for climate action and sustainable development, hosted a luncheon for former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and delegates of the Trans-Pacific Sustainability Dialogue (TPSD) 2025: Sustainable Cities and Communities on November 10 in Manila.

In her keynote message, Legarda called for urgent, climate-resilient urban transformation, grounded in recent climate disasters that have exposed the vulnerabilities of Philippine cities and the widening divide between growth and livability.

“It is my honor to host this luncheon and to welcome you all to Manila,” Legarda said, addressing an international audience from the Ban Ki-moon Foundation, Stanford University’s Asia-Pacific Research Center, the University of the Philippines Asian Center, and key institutions across the region. “We gather in that same spirit of candor, respect, and search for common ground.”

Legarda paid tribute to Ban Ki-moon, noting their shared advocacy for climate resilience and sustainable development. “Your leadership, from championing the Sustainable Development Goals to guiding the Paris Agreement, has shown us all that even complex global challenges can be met through empathy and collective resolve,” she said.

The four-term Senator recalled. “The Philippine Senate’s Resolution No. 929, which I had the honor to sponsor last year, was our modest tribute to you, a leader who has built bridges of cooperation across continents.”

Focusing her message on SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, Legarda warned that the country’s pace of urbanization has outstripped its safeguards. “It is like nature is speaking to us, telling us that our urban growth has outpaced our safeguards. Our cities are not yet built for the climate realities we face.”

Legarda pointed to stark realities: over a third of urban residents in the Philippines live in inadequate housing, only a third have access to public transport, and air pollution levels average nearly five times the World Health Organization’s safe limit. “Clear signs,” she said, “that our cities are growing faster than they are becoming livable.”

The senator emphasized that legislative action must match the scale of the challenge. She cited the Sustainable Cities and Communities Act, the Clean Gateway Cities Act, the Urban Walkability and Safe Pathways Standards Act, the Government Sustainable Hybrid and Electric Fleet Transition (SHIFT) Act, and the Noise Pollution Control and Abatement Act as key measures aligned with SDG 11.

“These measures are important,” Legarda said, “but what matters is the spirit with which they are implemented, the spirit of long-term vision and care for both people and planet.”

Legarda concluded with a call for stronger collaboration across nations, sectors, and generations: “Let this Dialogue be one such bridge—linking research and policy, past and future.”

The Trans-Pacific Sustainability Dialogue 2025 continues through November 11, convening senior policymakers, development experts, and scholars to accelerate progress on SDG 11 across the Asia-Pacific. (30)