PRESIDENT Marcos Jr. on Monday noted the importance of the loss and damage fund to the Philippines to address the adverse effects of climate change.
The President on Monday received the members of the board of directors of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) who paid a courtesy call in Malacanang.
“We’re working very hard for the board to be based here in Manila because (of) its supreme importance for the Philippines, because of all of the risks that we are bracing (for), because of climate change,” said Marcos who talked about the six typhoons that hit the country in a span of 23 days.
He said that is the most number of calamities that hit the country since the mid-1940s.
The President said the government is doing all it can to help address the situation despite the enormous task ahead.
“The momentum since the industrial revolution is something that can’t easily be moved or stopped or at least redirected. In the meantime, I hope all of you can find solution so that, we in the Philippines, most of our people, do not suffer. That’s how urgent we consider the board’s work and how it is important to us that you work here in Manila, in the Philippines,” Marcos said.
The FRLD Board is composed of 26 members from the Conference of the Parties (COP) and Meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA), with 12 members from developed country parties and 14 members from developing country parties, including the Philippines.
The Philippines has secured a seat on the board as permanent representative of the Asia-Pacific Group for 2024 and 2026 and as alternate representative of the Asia-Pacific Group for 2025.
The FRLD Board will serve as the principal decision-making body that governs and supervises the Fund which was established to help assist developing countries particularly vulnerable to climate change’s adverse effects.
Richard Sherman and Jean-Christophe Donnellier co-chair the Loss and Damage Fund board while Ibrahima Cheikh Diong serves as the fund’s executive director. Jocelyn Montemayor
