House Deputy Speaker Loren Legarda expressed her support for the ‘Dhaka-Glasgow Declaration of the Climate Vulnerable Forum’ adopted at the High-Level Leaders’ Dialogue during the World Leaders Summit at the ongoing UN Climate Change Conference (COP26).

“We charge the international community to respond proportionately to the unprecedented global injustice of the climate crisis, which now imminently threatens the safety and in cases, the viability or very existence of a number of our most vulnerable and least responsible nations, through redoubled efforts during this decade to keep the 1.5°C limit on warming within reach, deliver and work to upscale and improve promised climate finance, to accelerate adaptation, to promote gender-based and socially inclusive action, and to ensure the necessary life- and livelihood-preserving support for loss and damage of the most vulnerable,” the Declaration reads.

According to Legarda, more than 50 countries, including the Philippines, adopted the said Declaration in Glasgow, United Kingdom which urges the world and donor countries to step up adaptation, fix international climate cooperation, and keep the 1.5°C warming limit within reach.

"In light of the intensifying impacts of this climate crisis, we need to move closer and closer to decarbonization pathways. If countries historically responsible for the climate crisis won't act with urgency, we must act in concert to compel them to take responsibility," said Legarda, who is a Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) Ambassador for Parliaments .

The Declaration calls for the outcome of COP26 to include a “Climate Emergency Pact,” along with a Delivery Plan for the annual $100 billion in climate finance from developed countries over the period 2020-2024 totaling $500 billion added the three-term senator.

"This will be an additional finance to Official Development Assistance commitments in support of climate action by developing countries. There will be a 50:50 split of funds between adaptation and mitigation, and there will be an independent annual monitoring of implementation involving the International Monetary Fund (IMF)," the Antique lone district congresswoman said.

The Declaration also calls for an annual 2030 Ambition Raising platform, where all world governments, especially the major carbon-emitting countries, are urged to come forward with new ambitions on adaptation and mitigations.

Legarda added that the Climate Change Commission (CCC) also lauded the CVF Declaration as a strong push for COP26 to deliver on loss and damage, robust carbon markets to put a price on carbon, accelerating adaptation financing, new and improved climate finance, and shifting trillions to support a green recovery.

"The CCC noted that the country's climate change strategies are aligned with CVF’s priorities in six areas, including the transition to renewable energy, scaling efforts for protecting people displaced during disasters, and committing resources for a just transition towards low carbon development and promoting green jobs. For the CCC, this Declaration reflects the demands vulnerable countries have long expected – for developed nations to deliver their promises made in Copenhagen in 2009, and in the execution of the Paris Agreement," Legarda said.

"The Dhaka-Glasgow Declaration is the result of discussions and meetings held throughout this year, in which the nations most-vulnerable to the impacts of climate change stated their key concerns to address the climate emergency. Through the climate emergency pact, vulnerable countries will be able to fully address the needs of their people whose struggle every day is made ever so difficult by worsening climate change impacts." (Melvin Sarangay)