Senator Legarda Champions Climate Reform at IPU’s 138th Meeting 

Senator Loren Legarda at the Standing Committee of the IPU on Sustainable Development, Finance, and Trade.

10 April 2018 GENEVA — Senator Loren Legarda led the Philippine delegation to the 138th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. She actively participated in the Standing Committee of the IPU on Sustainable Development, Finance, and Trade. It was in this committee that she promoted the Philippine position on climate change.

The discussions in the standing committee focused on the vital issue of climate change and renewable energy and how the latter can be used to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Parliamentarians from all over the world listened intently to Senator Legarda’s proposals during the meeting of the Standing Committee on March 25.

Senator Legarda highlighted the importance of the Paris Agreement, which was agreed upon in 2015, regarding the lowering of temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. More importantly, she was able to get the point across to the members of the IPU that there must be a phasing out of fossil fuels beginning with coal, which is considered as the most polluting among all energy sources. Several other parliamentarians shared the views of the senator and agreed with the points she raised.

She also noted the need to come up with resilient energy infrastructure.

“The reason why electricity in other countries could be rendered expensive is because of the usual requirement of distribution utilities and transmission lines. This does not make for resilient energy infrastructure because it becomes too expensive. If we resort to using embedded generation or distribute energy through solar microgrids, we do not have to rely on long transmission lines in energizing remote areas in our countries,” she said.

Further, she added: “I would like to emphasize the need to cap the world’s warming to only 1.5 degrees Celsius, because as it is now, we already reached 1 degree Celsius. With all the disasters and impacts of climate change in different parts of the world, we may face the complete annihilation of the world’s coral reefs, the migration of tens of millions within countries and, even outside our borders, the inundation of islands, coastal cities, nations and communities.  We face the collapse of agriculture and ecosystems on which each of us depend for livelihood, food, jobs and industry.”

The issue of climate change is of significance to the Philippines given the country’s vulnerability to its harmful effects as witnessed during typhoon Haiyan and other storms that devastated the country. It is crucial for climate vulnerable countries like the Philippines to ensure that the global community meets the commitments they made under the Paris Agreement, in particular their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions. This was the agreed upon way forward to arrest the harmful effects of climate change.

Senator Legarda’s participation in this meeting of the IPU and her championing of the issue raised awareness among fellow parliamentarians. END

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