The Philippines called for more funding and advanced technologies to address climate change and meet sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo Loyzaga made the appeal ahead of an official Philippine mission to Baku, Azerbaijan for the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) to the United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change on November 11 to 22.
Amid the worsening climate crisis, Loyzaga expressed “cautious optimism” as the Philippine delegation will strive to follow up on previous commitments and advance new ones. The DENR chief vowed, along with other countries, to set a new global climate finance target for 2025 onwards, working from the $100 billion per year commitment which the parties have previously agreed on.
“The Asia Pacific nations that host a number of islands and our archipelago remain among the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change,” Loyzaga said.
Yulo Loyzaga
“Limited fiscal space in climate vulnerable developing countries means we need urgent access to the best science, along with new, additional and appropriate financing and innovative mechanisms and instruments from public and private sources,” she said.
“We are heading into COP29 inextricably linking Paris to the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) under UN auspices and the Plastics Treaty as well as other international commitments. All these must be linked because they rely on human and largely political decisions and actions and are truly interdependent,” she added.
World leaders prepared to hunker down in Baku for tough climate change negotiations. “We are paying close attention to discussions on our oceans, just as we are watching life on land,” Loyzaga said.DENR News
She said it was equally important to train the spotlight on critical issues. “A just transition, food, (including agriculture and fisheries) and water security, public health, climate change-induced mobility, urbanization, local resilience and the developments in carbon and biodiversity markets are also among our areas of concern,” she said.
The Philippines is also preparing to host the fourth meeting of the Board of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage in Manila on 2-5 December. DENR News
“I have met with the Co-Chairs, and together with the newly elected Executive Director, we hope to explore ways that the Philippines and the Fund can work together to accelerate operationalization so that we can contribute to achieving the goals of the Fund,” she said.
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on August 28, 2024 signed into law Republic Act No. 12019, or the Loss and Damage Fund Board Act, to grant juridical personality and legal capacity to the Philippines’ hosting of the Board of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage.
The new law empowers the Board of the Fund to respond to and recover loss and damage arising from climate change and mobilize broad and innovative sources of climate financing for this purpose. DENR News
