Statement by Deputy Speaker Loren Legarda CVF Thematic Ambassador Parliaments Climate Vulnerable Forum

Thank you, Honorable Minister Momen.

Your Excellencies, the Heads of State and Government of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, Secretary-General, Honorable Ministers, and Fellow CVF Ambassadors: It is an honor to join you on this momentous occasion.

I wish to thank the CVF Presidency for appointing me as Thematic Ambassador for Parliaments. Our 48-member strong Forum must forge on with the urgent call to raise level of climate ambition at the global and national scales.

Excellencies:

Episodic climate-induced disasters such as intense typhoons, flooding, and storm surge, unfortunately, form only one subset of the threats we are facing.

The other subset involves slow-onset events that take place without the drama of calamity but will inflict more lasting harm to our economic aspirations.

While there is a pandemic on land, there is also an ongoing pandemic underwater in the form of sea level rise, ocean acidification, and coral bleaching.

Just three months ago, we dealt with 47 coral bleaching reports, covering the entire range of low, to severe, to extreme bleaching. This is an unfolding tragedy with its vast impacts on peoples’ livelihoods, food security, and safety. 

It is this context that vulnerable country parliaments must take a far more active role in steering development toward low-carbon and sustainable pathways and in enhancing the adaptive capacities of our communities to the climate crisis.

I ask my fellow members of parliament of CVF member countries to work in unison and ensure that:

First, we create a driving force for enhanced and coherent climate actions in the executive and legislative agenda of our respective governments.

As policymakers, we can create an enabling environment for science-based policy planning and risk governance at national and sub-national levels.

Let us challenge our counterparts in the executive to dramatically raise climate ambition through our Nationally Determined Contributions.

Moreover, let us support the establishment of a global carbon market framework.

Hard fought development gains and productivity will continue to be undermined or even reversed if the 1.5-degree global warming threshold of the Paris Agreement is breached. 

If countries historically responsible for the climate crisis will not act with urgency, we, climate vulnerable countries, must act in concert to compel them to take responsibility.

Second, we must argue for the inclusion of climate and resilience interventions into the COVID-19 economic stimulus packages.

I urge my fellow parliamentarians to echo our call of the Global Commission on Adaptation for world leaders to align COVID-19 responses with the long-term climate objectives of the Agenda for Sustainable Development, Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, and the Paris Agreement.

Let us turn this recovery into a real opportunity to accelerate progress in seven areas namely, urban resilience, water resources management, social safety nets, food security, nature-based solutions, and disaster risk reduction.

Lastly, we must support the Vulnerable 20 Group of Finance Ministers on mobilizing climate finance and de-risking financial flows to our economies.

The deployment of financial instruments is our key to unlock a new risk management paradigm that would bring about resilience and stability, especially for small businesses and vulnerable populations.

The CVF-V20 has recently secured a 3 billion US dollar commitment from China to support the adaptation initiatives and renewable energy transition of member countries. We expect this partnership to prosper with China’s enhanced NDC ambition.

Excellencies:

Sustained by the support of my fellow parliamentarians, the CVF will continue to drive transformative global climate action for a safer, more secure, and more sustainable future for all.

Thank you and mabuhay!