Loren urges world legislators to act on climate change in Paris meet

Sen. Loren Legarda appealed to the world’s legislators who gathered in Paris, France yesterday to immediately implement effective policies on climate change to “reduce the damage and casualties caused by natural disasters.”

“Parliamentarians around the world, especially in countries vulnerable to disasters, should take a pro-active role in advancing disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation in order to protect lives and livelihood,” Legarda said during the 8th Annual Conference of the Parliamentary Network and the World Bank (PNoWB) that was attended by 150 legislators and development leaders from 110 countries.

The PNoWB aims to fight global poverty, promote transparency and accountability in international development and offers a platform for policy dialogue between the World Bank and parliamentarians.

Legarda was a panelist for the session on Linking Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction.

In an address, Legarda stressed that disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation should be weaved together to protect people from disasters, especially those from developing countries such as the Philippines who were more vulnerable.

“Disasters have already claimed countless lives, brutally destroyed livelihoods and indiscriminately condemned whole sub-populations to perpetual and potentially inter-generational poverty traps,” Legarda said.

The panelists in the session, moderated by Thierry Cornillet, a member of the European Parliament, agreed that natural disasters “can set back decades of development overnight” and that “risk reduction is a first and fail-proof strategy for climate change adaptation.”

Legarda said disasters could contribute to longer-term states of poverty by delaying development of poorer areas in the country.

The poverty assessment conducted by the World Bank in 2001 cited the rise in poverty level to 28 percent due to the impact of El Niño.

Another World Bank study in 2004 reported that the economic impact of disasters totaled $500 million annually or about four percent of the gross domestic product.

The Philippine government has reported that economic losses and damage due to disasters dramatically rose to $1.6 billion in 2006. These losses were borne mostly by people in the rural areas where poverty is prevalent.

Legarda urged legislators to strengthen their political commitment and develop a legal and institutional framework conducive to disaster risk reduction and provide an effective response to tackle climate change-induced disasters.

She recommended that the Hyogo Framework for Action be made into an internationally binding legal instrument.

The Hyogo Framework for Action, which 168 countries adopted after the 2005 Asian tsunami, seeks to build up the resilience of nations to disasters.

Legarda also reported on the Manila Call for Action, the main outcome of the parliamentary consultation of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction held in Manila last month.

The resolution stressed the need for advancing disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation by national legislations.

Legarda recently filed a resolution in the Senate inquiring into the compliance of the Philippine government to the Hyogo Framework for Action. – with Katherine Adraneda