Marcos wants board of Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage based in Manila

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is confident that the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) will aid the Philippines when it comes to addressing the adverse effects of climate change.

He wants the Board to be based in the country due to its vital role of helping the Philippines in mitigating climate change effects.

“We’re working very hard for the board to be based here in Manila because [of] its supreme importance for the Philippines, because of all of the risks that we are bracing [for], because of climate change,” Marcos said as he welcomed members of the Board of the FRLD in a courtesy call in Malacañang on Monday afternoon.

During the meeting, Marcos mentioned the natural disasters that hit the Philippines in the past weeks, noting that the number of calamities did not happen since the middle of 1940s.

“The momentum since the industrial revolution is something that can’t be easily be moved or stopped or at least redirected. In the meantime, I hope all of you can find solution so that, we in the Philippines, most of our people do not suffer,” Marcos said.

“That’s how urgent we consider the board’s work and how it is important to us that you work here in Manila, in the Philippines,” he added.

According to the Presidential Communications Office, the board of the FRLD will serve as the principal decision-making body that governs and supervises the Fund.

It is composed of 26 members from the Conference of the Parties (COP) and Meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA), with 12 members from developed country parties as well as 14 members from developing country parties.

To recall, the Philippines secured a seat on the board as permanent representative of the Asia-Pacific Group for 2024 and 2026 and as alternate representative of the Asia-Pacific Group for 2025.

The Fund’s mandate includes a focus on addressing loss and damage to assist developing countries particularly vulnerable climate change’s adverse effects. —KG, GMA Integrated News