House Ways and Means Chair Joey Sarte Salceda (Albay, 2nd district) has congratulated the Marcos administration for its successful bid for the Philippines to host the Loss and Damage Fund (LDF) Board under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
“Hosting the LDF will help the Philippines gain fair access to financial resources for funding climate change adaptation and mitigation measures,” said Salceda who was the first Asian co-chair of the UN Green Climate Fund, the predecessor of the LDF. He was elected to it in 2013 by representatives of 180 nation-states.
“As a former delegate to the UNFCCC, alongside many Filipino experts, we fought for the principle of loss and damage and why it needs compensation,” he said.
Salceda explained that “loss and damage are adverse impacts of climate change despite adaptation and mitigation measures. They are, in other words, the unavoidable losses due to the fault primarily of industrialized countries.”
“And because it is both inevitable and attributable, the principle is that we should hold large industrialized countries accountable for loss and damage to climate-vulnerable communities,” he stressed.
As the first Asian co-chair of the UNFCCC Green Climate Fund, Salceda is recognized for leading the board to completing the eight (8) prerequisites for its operationalization during the Board meeting in Bali, Indonesia, and for raising US$13 billion for the Green Climate Fund in the Initial Resource Mobilization in Oslo, Norway.
Salceda was recognized for these accomplishments during the Conference of Parties (COP) 20 in Lima, Peru in 2014.
“In fact, during my term, in 2014 it (COP 20), was supposed to be held in Legazpi City, Albay were it not for a disastrous typhoon,” he said.
Salceda urged the Marcos administration to take an aggressive stance on loss and damage during climate talks in 2022, in the aftermath of typhoon Paeng. The Philippines won a seat in the LDF Board, in addition to hosting the body.
An initial US$700 million was pledged by donor countries to the LDF. Experts warn, however, that this is merely 0.2 percent of the total loss and damage developing countries suffer from climate change every year.
“The Philippines has moral ascendancy in climate talks. We are the most climate-vulnerable country in the world. And we are also a global leader in DRR and climate change adaptation,” Salceda emphasized.
“Hosting the LDF Board gives us a platform to highlight the true scale of the problem and to call for proportionate action from the leading economies of the world — those who benefited from carbon emissions the most,” he added.