Statement of UN Philippines Resident Coordinator for COP27

Moving away from fossil fuels, investing in renewables, adopting energy efficiency approaches, expanding nature-based solutions and developing sustainable food systems will be key in achieving the climate targets of the Paris Agreement.  We have the resources, tools and the technologies to get to where we need to be.  Investments will be considerable but definitely not unachievable.  A just transition to decarbonized, zero-emission, circular economies will also protect billions of jobs that are dependent on nature, generate more green jobs and address challenges in labor and migration, and forcible displacement driven by the dynamics of poverty, food insecurity, climate change and conflict.



Countries need to ensure effective implementation and unfragmented efforts toward climate change adaptation, particularly in agriculture, water management and urban development. It is crucial to support the private sector, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, towards ‘going green’, and further investing in climate risk financing and risk transfer instruments. Creating a global financing mechanism to address loss and damage for the severe impacts felt by countries to which climate change adaptation is simply not enough will be equally important. Efforts to enhance the resilience of displaced people and communities to climate-related and other environmental risks, while preserving and rehabilitating the natural environment and mitigating environmental degradation in displacement settings also need to be pursued. Government, businesses and decision-makers must protect the health, safety, learning and opportunities of children, young people and other vulnerable groups by adapting the critical social services they rely on, and preparing them to live in a climate-changed world by improving their ‘adaptive capacity’.



There is no one office or agency who can do this, we all must work together and ensure contributions of women and men, all key stakeholders and institutions are accounted for. Developing nations including the Philippines must band together in demanding for urgent access to climate financing and climate justice for all. The United Nations Country Team stands ready to support the Philippines in addressing these climate challenges. [Ends]