THE PHILIPPINES is looking at whether monsoons that cause heavy flooding in local communities could give the country access to aid from the United Nations Loss and Damage Fund (LDF), according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
“The access modalities are still to be defined by the board when it is able to assume that legal personality,” Environment Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga told a Senate foreign relations hearing on Monday. “However, extreme weather has already been made part of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) reports.”
She said the board would set parameters on what type of monsoons would merit access to the Loss and Damage Fund.
The Philippines was selected to host the Loss and Damage Fund board at a meeting in Incheon, South Korea in July.
Ms. Yulo-Loyzaga earlier said access to the fund would aid Manila’s disaster response efforts, especially in Philippine coastal communities affected by rising seas.
Last year, developed countries, mainly responsible for most of the world’s carbon emissions, pledged about $700 million to the LDF. — John Victor D. Ordoñez
