Climate hazards
WITHOUT doubt, the climate change issue is acknowledged to be one of the major problems confronting people across the world, including poverty-stricken Philippines.
This is understandable because the damage brought about by natural disasters “cannot bring back what we have lost in terms of lives, livelihoods, assets and opportunities.”
And to think that the billions of pesos in losses could have been used to finance various health and social welfare programs for the beleaguered Filipino people.
We share the view of Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda, a certified environmentalist, that “a whole of nation approach” is vital in addressing the worsening global crisis.
Legarda pointed out that the Philippines is among the vulnerable countries that is entitled to financial support through the 2015 Paris Agreement on the effects of climate change.
It is also a beneficiary under the global Green Climate Fund created to serve the Paris Agreement and the Kyoto Protocol that aims to provide funding for climate mitigaton and adaptation of developing nations.
Just like the post-war reparations, the highly-articulate lady senator said that these financial grants “help get us on an appropriate development track.”
Climate finance, she said, is needed to build defenses, safeguard Filipinos from climate impacts and shift the economy and society towards low-carbon development and growth.
And with so many people now in the grip of misery because of typhoons, floods and prolonged droughts, ignoring the adverse effects of natural disasters is unconscionable.
Dapat tayong lahat ay magtulong-tulong para i-address ang climate change.
