Opening Statement on the Joint Hearing of the Senate Committee on Climate Change and Environment and Natural Resources

Senator Loren Legarda’s Opening Statement
Joint Hearing of the Senate Committee on Climate Change and Environment and Natural Resources
8 July 2015

It is with great pleasure that I welcome you all to this joint hearing of the Senate Committees on Climate Change and Environment and Natural Resources.

I would like to thank all our resource persons as your insights will be very valuable as we seek to ways to improve the resilience of our ecosystems amidst the impacts of climate change.

Based on the 2014 Philippine Climate Change Assessment Report released by the Climate Change Commission, the Philippines ranks high among countries at risk of experiencing the effects of climate change, with climate projections showing a rise in annual mean.[1]

With this in mind, a related question I would like this hearing to address is, as one of the most vulnerable countries to disasters linked to climate change, what steps are we taking as a nation to gather all sectors involved to protect and conserve our natural resources, “in the pursuit of a disaster-resilient and climate-adaptive sustainable growth path for all?”

With that, I wish to open our hearing and I hope for a meaningful discussion.  Good morning to all.