Solidarity Message: Youth Strike for Climate Philippines

Solidarity Message of Deputy Speaker and Antique Congresswoman Loren Legarda

Youth Strike for Climate Philippines

20 September 2019

Today, I stand by the Youth Strike for Climate Philippines — united with the youths all over the world in the Global Climate Strike, and with its demand for ambitious and faster climate action.

The climate emergency is unequivocal. And the only fitting response is to change our ways — from our way of thinking and living, to our way of pursuing development.

We have no other choice now but to adapt to a fast warming world fraught with danger.

We have no other choice now but to wean our economies from over dependence on coal and fossil fuels at the shortest time possible.

We have no other choice now but to act together bolder and faster to rein the runaway global warming to below our resilience threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The low carbon revolution is at hand. We must green our technologies and industries. We must green all the sectors of our economy — with green jobs and just transition.

Heeding the demands of our youths is not a choice but a moral imperative — our moral responsibility for the generation of today and of the future.

I call on my colleagues in Congress to heed the call of our youths — to rise to the climate challenge, to uphold the  Climate Change Act and all the other ecological and environmental laws of our land.

And l call also on all our national and local government officials to implement our climate change laws and policies and to ensure that climate change adaptation and mitigation is mainstreamed in all policies, plans and programs.

I echo the call of our youths for climate justice.  I, therefore, call on the developed world to deliver on their commitments under the Paris Agreement and to lead the low carbon revolution for a carbon neutral world by mid-century.

Let the latest climate science inform and guide every decision that we make.

Let’s unite for global and local climate action — for everybody’s action matters.

Let’s unite for climate resilience — for despite the odds, we shall survive and thrive in this trying era of climate change.