A legislator has expressed hopes the Philippines will be able to secure huge funding for climate finance at the ongoing United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meeting, being the first host-country of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) board.
“The ongoing meeting of the FRLD board in the Philippines, which was selected as the inaugural country-host of this UNFCCC-created panel, presents a splendid opportunity for our country to lobby for greater international financial support for climate mitigation and adaptation,” said Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte.
On the opening day of the FRLD board meeting earlier this week, Natural Resources Secretary Ma. Antonia Loyzaga cited the need for “vibrant, strong and inclusive” multilateralism or unified international action to deal with the unique challenges faced by climate-vulnerable countries such as the Philippines.
Loyzaga described the Philippines as a “living laboratory for current and future risks” and a “test case” or “a baseline, not only of what climate-vulnerable developing countries will endure in these uncertain and unpredictable times, but also of our capacity to recover, given adequate and timely access to the right resources.”
Villafuerte backed the government's stance that the Philippines should use the recent streak of tropical cyclones that hit the country in less than a month as a “test case” for the country in seeking “climate finance funds as a form of climate justice for loss and damage caused by erratic weather patterns.”
Over the past two months, successive storms—Kristine, Leon, Marce, Nica, Ofel and Pepito—hit the country, killing thousands of people, leaving many families homeless, and several infrastructures badly damaged.
