Loren urges Climate Change Act's full implementation

"A triumph for all Filipinos. A bold measure to ensure that our countrymen need not feel helpless against the devastation and disasters caused by climate change-related natural calamities."

So said an ecstatic Senator Loren Legarda yesterday following the signing into law in Malacañang of the Climate Change bill which she authored and filed in 2007 to mainstream climate change actions and initiatives into government's policies and programs.

"It was a long and arduous battle on my part to see through the passage of this law. But since man can never really measure up to the wrath of Mother Nature, I humbly submit that this Climate Change Act is but a small step in the right direction," said Loren.

"The important thing is for all of us to ensure that all of the provisions of this law are translated into positive and concrete actions so that we, as a people, would have all the necessary infrastructure, capabilities and resources to deal with the devastating effects of climate change," she added.

The new law will mainstream climate change initiatives and action into Philippine policy formulation, development planning, and poverty reduction programs.

The senator cautioned that many well-meaning laws had gone to waste due to poor or non-implementation of their provisions or the watering down of their intent when translated into action by government.

She cited as example the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, whose passage she shepherded during her first term as senator, but whose provisions on waste segregation and their proper disposal had not been strictly followed.

"Waste disposal, as can be seen from the garbage problems we have on our heavily silted river systems, bays, esteros and floodways, is at the core of the problem and is closely related to what should be done in helping mitigate the effects of climate change," she said.

"We have crafted the necessary laws, right. But that's winning just half the battle, because the proper implementation of pieces of laws holds the key."

The law will also create a Commission on Climate Change, headed by the President and which would serve as the sole policy making body of the government, tasked to coordinate, monitor and evaluate the programs and action plans of the government relating to climate change.

"It was in November of 2007 that I filed this bill and through the help of our climate change experts, concerned government agencies and fellow legislators, we finally succeeded in having this signed after two years," Loren recalls.

The senator said that the law would speed up the capacity building for local adaptation planning, implementation and monitoring of climate change initiatives in vulnerable communities.

"Mainstreaming entails the integration of policies and measures that address climate change into development planning and decision-making," said Loren, who chairs the Senate Standing and Oversight Committee on Climate Change.

"Climate change is a challenge that must be taken up by local and national governments for it is a reality that confronts our communities, families, our daily lives," she said.

"It is here and now. It is both our debt and duty to the earth and our children's children to make climate change our problem and solve it, not tomorrow, not in the next decade, but today. And we can do it."