Climate resilience PH priority, UN told

CLIMATE resilience and food security are the key development priorities of the country, Philippine Permanent Representative to the United Nations Antonio Lagdameo informed the UN Security Council, the Department of Foreign Affairs said.

Lagdameo, during open debates, said that the Philippines has adopted the National Climate Change Action Plan, which prioritizes food security, water sufficiency, ecological and environmental stability, among others, as the country’s strategic direction to 2028.

“The Philippines is a living testament to the harsh realities of climate change,” the ambassador said.

“We have faced and continue to face the wrath of devastating typhoons, rising sea levels, and the perilous threats posed to our biodiversity and ecosystems, agriculture, food security and livelihoods,” Lagdameo said. “These realities compel us to take bold and decisive actions, rooted in equity and our firm commitment to global rules-based order and multilateralism.”

He stressed the need for countries to comply with “agreements and commitments made within the context of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Paris Agreement are complied with and climate justice ensured.”

“The meeting aimed to promote enhanced understanding, more coordinated responses, and proactive approaches to addressing the linkages between food insecurity and climate change in a peace and security context,” the DFA wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

Guyanese President Mohamed Irfaan Ali led the meeting, along with UN Secretary-General António Guterres, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Simon Stiell, Deputy Director-General of the Food and Agricultural Organization Beth Bechdol, and Director of Global Initiatives and Head of Peace, Climate, and Sustainable Development of the International Peace Institute Jimena Leiva Roesch.