Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 2) — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Friday told world leaders that the Philippines intends to host the “loss and damage fund” designed to help nations most vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.
He said this during the historic opening of the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai, which saw global delegates formally adopting the fund that developing countries have long pressed for.
\”The Philippines will announce its intent to host the loss and damage fund,\” Marcos wrote in a speech read by Special Assistant to the President, Antonio Ernesto Lagdameo Jr.
Marcos skipped the climate summit due to developments on the Filipino seafarers held hostage by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the Red Sea.
\”We urge partners from the private sector, civil society, partner countries and governments, and developing funding institutions to support the Philippines in this bid,\” the president added. \”You have been there for meaningful collaboration with our government to tackle the climate crises.\”
Marcos also called for the immediate operationalization of the fund that has been decades in the making.
The loss and damage fund would channel money from high-income countries — which have largely contributed to climate change — to pay poorer nations that have to bear the brunt of the crisis.
A special UN committee earlier recommended that the World Bank serve as the fund’s host and trustee. Developing countries had opposed this, as they feared that allowing the bank — whose presidents are appointed by the United States — to manage the fund might give donor countries outsized influence.
However, all parties eventually agreed to give the bank the oversight power on the condition that it would only be over a four-year period.
