Philippines calls for operational loss-and-damage fund, warns of worsening climate impacts

Maria Teresa Lazaro, Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines, used her UN General Assembly address to press for climate action, urging full implementation of the Paris Agreement and the "full operationalization of the fund for responding to loss and damage." She said that developing countries, especially small islands and coastal states, bear the heaviest costs of climate change despite contributing little to global emissions.

Lazaro asked delegates to "put a face to the climate emergency," citing Nepal's burden despite contributing "less than 0.1% of global emissions," and saying since August "ferocious monsoons and storms have battered our islands, affecting more than 2.7 million families" in the Philippines. She linked the climate emergency to risks for development and livelihoods and called for strengthened implementation of the SAI framework and reform of international financial architecture to mobilize development financing and technology transfer.

"We call for the effective implementation of the Paris agreement, the full operationalization of the fund for responding to loss and damage and strengthened implementation of the SAI framework," Lazaro said. Her remarks tied climate finance to broader calls for a UN development system responsive to developing countries' needs.