The local chief executives (LCEs) from Regions 6, 7, and 8 show their support for climate change initiatives.
This comes as House Committee on Climate Change chair Cong. Edgar Chatto and Greenpeace Philippines Country Director Lea Guerrero led LCEs from the Visayas regions in the signing of a manifesto supporting initiatives to address the climate crisis during the launch of Climate Change Imperative on October 25, 2022 here in the province.
The manifesto asserts the urgency to mitigate the effects of climate change, joins the call to hold major polluters accountable and compensate countries that are greatly affected by the hazards of climate change.
Greenpeace says the manifesto will be brought to the 27th Conference of Parties (COP27) in Egypt, next month.
The policy forum, which is the first leg of the series launched in Bohol, organized by the Climate Change Committee with Greenpeace Philippines and the Climate Change Commission (CCC) featured communities vulnerable to extreme weather conditions brought about by climate change.
The forum tackled topics by partner advocates such as the CCC on climate change impacts to the community, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) on The Climate Change and Human Rights Report, the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities on climate financing particularly the People’s Survival Fund, Greenpeace Philippines on the Disaster Risk Reduction Toolkit, and the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center on Loss and Damage.
Chatto said the forum is a fulfillment of one of the main objectives of the declaration of climate and environmental emergency for local government officials to craft policies not only on climate change mitigation but also on the protection of constituents against hazards.
The policy fora series will be held in Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao and the National Capital Region (NCR), seeking to establish better relationships and goals in developing a system of sharing climate change-related knowledge and harnessing the capacity of the local officials to take on the challenge of protecting the environment.
Moreover, Chatto in a privilege speech delivered during the opening of Congress, committed to closely engage with CCC, stakeholders and local government units (LGU) in consultations as mandated under the Climate Change Act
In this connection, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has encouraged the participation of local chief executives and the agency’s regional directors in the various fora.
