Members of Aksyon Klima during the Loss and Meeting at the national level. Photo credit: Tuesday Lagman/FES Philippines.
At a meeting of civil society organizations (CSOs) convened on 30 August 2024 to discuss the L&D mechanism under House Bill 9609 or the proposed Climate Accountability (CLIMA) Act that is currently being reviewed in Congress, SEARICE lobbied for greater access by vulnerable sectors- particularly smallholder farmers and grassroots food producers- to the mechanism’s Fund by promoting greater understanding of it and providing clear language on linkages of food and agriculture to climate in the policy. The L&D Fund, which was operationalized at the COP 28 UN Climate Change Conference in December 2024, was established to help vulnerable countries recover from climate impacts.
SEARICE also argued that CSOs must consistently and proactively engage with the L&D process and reiterated that implementing systems should be made easier for CSOs to engage.
The Philippines was selected as the host country of the Board during the latter's second meeting in Songdo, South Korea in July 2024.
This is a major milestone, as the Philippines hosting the Board will grant the Board the legal personality needed, for example, to negotiate and enter into a hosting arrangement with the World Bank, which will be the interim trustee of the Fund, operationalize the financial intermediary fund, and host of the Fund's secretariat.
The CSO meeting, organized by Aksyon Klima network, aimed to ensure adequate participation by CSO stakeholders, particularly indigenous peoples, youth, smallholder farmers, and women, in the Board meetings and other spaces relevant to the L&D Fund. The CSOs acknowledged that understanding of the L&D Board is still low, and will continue to push governments to intensify education and popularization efforts around the L&D mechanism.
Related to this, CSOs will play a vital role in advocating for the CLIMA Bill (Climate Bill) and in developing the law's Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRRs) once it is passed.
Along with SEARICE, other CSO participants included R1, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Living Laudato Si Philippines, Oxfam, Pambansang Koalisyon ng Kababaihan sa Kanayunan (PKKK), Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology (CREST), and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), among others.
Aksyon Klima Pilipinas is the Philippines's largest civil society network for climate action. Consisting of more than 40 civil society and people's organizations nationwide, it advocates for climate change adaptation, mitigation, loss and damage action, finance, and technology transfer at the national and global levels through science-based, urgent, inclusive, and equitable decision-making processes anchored on upholding human rights and social justice. [Ends]