Marcos signs bill on Loss and Damage Fund Board
PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. has signed into law a bill that a United Nations-backed Loss and Damage Fund Board juridical personality and legal capacity, as the Philippine leads the push to help vulnerable countries to the climate crisis.
Signed on Wednesday, the Loss and Damage Fund Board Act allows the entity to contract, acquire and dispose of immovable and movable property, and start legal proceedings.
It can also negotiate, conclude and enter into a hosting agreement with the World Bank as an interim trustee and host of the Fund’s secretariat, and undertake activities needed to discharge its duties.
The Philippines in July was elected to host the board, which is composed of 26 parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 2015 Paris Agreement.
The board oversees a fund that seeks to help vulnerable countries deal with losses and damage caused by climate change, which according to a recent global study strengthens typhoons.
Environment Undersecretary Analiza Rebuelta-Teh told a Senate hearing earlier this month the World Bank is bound by the decisions of board members.
The World Bank will host the fund for four years under an independent secretariat.
Rich countries that account for most of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions have pledged $661.39 million to the fund, falling short of the $100 billion to $580 billion global estimates for the annual loss and damage in developing countries.
The new law boosts Philippine climate initiatives and will “solidify the Philippines’ leadership in championing the voices of those most impacted by climate change,” Finance Secretary Ralph E. Recto said in a statement.
“We are determined for our hosting to set the gold standard for climate finance and action, not just across Asia and the Pacific, but around the globe.”
By hosting the board, the Philippines will play a leading role in helping attract support from developed countries and development partners to provide financial contributions in addressing losses and damage due to climate change, Mr. Recto said.
A devastating typhoon that tore through the Philippines, Taiwan and China last month, destroying infrastructure and leaving more than 100 people dead, was made significantly worse by human-induced climate change, scientists said in a report on Thursday.
Super Typhoon Gaemi (Carina), which killed dozens of Filipinos and triggered more than 40 landslides, also exposed the Philippines’ weak urban planning, according to the study by the World Weather Attribution.
As another typhoon made landfall in Japan, climate researchers said warmer seas were providing extra “fuel” for tropical storms in Asia, making them more dangerous.
Typhoon Gaemi swept across East Asia beginning on July 22, with more than 300mm (11.81 inches) of rain falling on the Philippine capital Manila in just a day.
Wind speeds as fast as 145 mph (232 kph) drove storm waves that sank an oil tanker off the Philippine coast and a cargo ship near Taiwan. Rain from Gaemi also caused fatal mudslides in the Chinese province of Hunan.
Typhoon Gaemi’s wind speeds were about 9 mph more intense and its rainfall up to 14% higher as a result of warmer sea temperatures, according to the scientists.
“With global temperatures rising, we are already witnessing an increase in these ocean temperatures, and as a result, more powerful fuel is being made available for these tropical cyclones, increasing their intensity,” Nadia Bloemendaal, a researcher at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, told a briefing on Wednesday before the report was released.
At the same briefing, Clair Barnes, a research associate at London’s Grantham Institute, said typhoons were now 30% more likely to occur compared with the pre-industrial age, warning that they would become even more common and intense if global temperature increases reach 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit).
East Asia is accustomed to extreme weather, but its flood prevention infrastructure and emergency response planning are coming under increasing pressure, said Maja Vahlberg, a climate risk consultant with the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre.
“Even our best efforts are being stretched to their limits,” she said. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza with Reuters