‘Individual effort, solution to climate change’

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MANILA — Sen. Loren Legarda said the key to addressing climate change is in the hands of every person’s effort to be a part of the solution.

In her speech during the recent Summit of Consciences for the Climate in Paris, France, Legarda said that the country is ready to lead the fight against climate change.

Being a vulnerable nation that is not the cause of this vulnerability, we hope that the Philippines will be the first to show the outcome of this summit,” she said.

Citing the devastation caused by Typhoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan), Legarda said the country is among the most vulnerable nations.

“I come from a country that is 0.3 percent emitter of carbon in the world and yet we are one of the most vulnerable nations as you have seen and witnessed with Typhoon ‘Haiyan’ (Yolanda) in 2013.”

Legarda who is the chair of the Senate committee on environment and natural resources, and climate change said that the gathering is an important way of promoting awareness about climate change and encouraging people to take action.

“We realize that the experiences that led us to making the protection of the environment an advocacy and way of life are the events, issues and concerns that were either personal or that happened in our own communities. This only means that the key to addressing climate change lies in each and every individual’s effort to be part of the solution.”

The summit was attended by faith leaders, Nobel Prize laureates, environment activities and personalities, was an initiative of Nicolas Hulot, Special Envoy of the French President for the Protection of the Planet.

Over 40 attendees signed the Call to Conscience for the Climate, which was also officially launched in the event.

“The climate crisis and the wider ecological crisis cannot be reduced to these scientific, technological, economic and political, but it is a crisis of meaning. The root cause of environmental degradation and climate change is a way of life, a mode of production, a mode of consumption that is not compatible with human development,” French President François Hollande said.