P1-B survival fund proposed to cope with disasters

Senator Loren Legarda INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Senator Loren Legarda on Tuesday called for the immediate creation of a People’s Survival Fund with an annual budget of P1 billion to cope with environmental disasters.

Legarda told the Philippine Daily Inquirer the Senate needed to initiate a legislative framework for climate change adaptation in the face of the hesitance of developed countries to respond to the issue in the recently concluded United Nations climate talks in Durban, South Africa.

Legarda, the chairperson of the Senate committee on climate change, admitted that the fund, proposed by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, was insufficient.

This is why it is important that developing countries undertake parallel initiatives to address climatic catastrophes, she said.

Legarda expressed disappointment over the results of the UN talks. She noted that while richer countries wavered on how to respond to global warming, “poor and vulnerable countries, such as ours, continuously suffer from floods, hunger, displacement and economic setbacks.”

“Industrialized countries have a historical responsibility for climate change and are morally obliged to financially and technologically assist developing countries in their efforts to reduce their vulnerability and adapt to its consequences, while reducing their own greenhouse gas emissions,” she said.