Thank you, His Excellency Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, for convening today’s important debate.
Thank you very much as well to the briefers.
The Philippines is a living testament to the harsh realities of climate change. We have faced and continue to face the wrath of devastating typhoons, rising sea levels, and the perilous threats posed to our biodiversity and ecosystems, agriculture, food security and livelihoods. These realities compel us to take bold and decisive actions, rooted in equity and our firm commitment to global rules-based order and multilateralism.
The World Risk Index 2023, which assesses the disaster risk of 193 countries due to extreme natural events and the adverse impact of climate change, ranked the Philippines first with the highest disaster risk and 4th in terms of highest exposure. Further, we have recorded around US$11.2 billion or 3% GDP economic loss due to tropical cyclones for the last 10 years.
We also take cognizance of the “Hunger Hotspots” Report of the World Food Programme and UN Food and Agriculture Organization that identifies conflict and organized violence, economic shocks, natural hazards/weather extremes and climate variability as key drivers to hunger.
Back home, climate resilience and food security are development priorities, with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. emphasizing the importance of food as “the very basis of human security” and climate change as “the basis on which we have to act for the future, on which we have to design our systems.”
In 2023 alone, the Philippines has condoned more than 600,000 small farmers of loans amounting to more than USD 1 billion, in line with efforts to democratize land and agriculture. We have adopted the National Climate Change Action Plan which prioritizes food security, water sufficiency, ecological and environmental stability, among others, as the country’s strategic direction to 2028.
In its peace process in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the Philippine Government has instituted socioeconomic programs to address the needs of members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, internally displaced persons, and poverty-stricken communities in the Bangsamoro.
The “From Arms to Farms” is an innovate municipal-level program that utilizes organic agriculture as a tool to reintegrate former Moro Islamic Liberation Front combatants back into society to foster peace and development. Through the program, rebel returnees received subsidies and comprehensive training in technical skills related to organic farming transforming them into self-reliant farmer entrepreneurs.
At the global level, we appreciate the presence here in the Security Council of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and stresses the primacy of UNFCCC, with near-universal membership, for global climate action.
It is critically important that agreements and commitments made within the context of the UNFCCC and its Paris Agreement are complied with; and climate justice ensured. The principle of equity, common but differentiated responsibilities needs to be upheld; while ensuring urgent and responsive means of implementation to developing countries, in terms of capacity building, tech transfer and financing.
As a global community, we also need to advance the values of our biodiversity and our oceans as the source of nature-based solutions to our climate crisis and to serve as the foundation for inclusive and resilient development, peace and security.
We appreciate as well the presence of FAO here, and recognize their important role as a science- and evidence-based knowledge organization for food security and agriculture.
As was highlighted in the FAO Council session last December, we need, among others, to keep open the trade of food and agricultural inputs and products and to ensure targeted humanitarian action, including anticipatory actions and emergency response to address existing and emerging humanitarian needs.
Excellencies,
The world deserves a kind of multilateralism that fosters effective global action and response to emerging risks and threats that put us all collectively in peril. The Philippines will continue, in this regard, to contribute to a more constructive, more inclusive and fairer multilateralism.
Thank you.