Legarda bids to save fish from choking on plastics

Senator Loren Legarda waxed nostalgic in commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Manila Call to Action on Climate Change at the residence of French Ambassador Marie Fontanel last 26 February in Makati City.

The call that she helped draft 10 years ago was read by then President Benigno Aquino III and his visiting French counterpart François Hollande, urging nations to unite against climate change ahead of the COP 21 meeting in Paris in 2015.

Speaking to reporters, local officials and diplomats at the Makati event, the chair of the Senate Committee on Culture and Arts proudly recalled the historic Paris Agreement that resulted after the call. That landmark treaty enjoined nations to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The senator, however, admitted that more work is needed after subsequently leading the Philippines’ ratification of the pact on 22 April 2017 and enacting many related laws thereafter.

“Last year, for the first time, the Earth’s temperature breached the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold above pre-industrial levels, the very threshold we fought to avoid, knowing it marked a line between resilience and ruin,” read a statement by Legarda, who also chairs the Senate Subcommittee on the Paris Agreement.

Thus, coinciding with the remembrance of the Manila Call to Action on Climate Change, Legarda and Fontanel announced that France and the Philippines are embarking on a new joint mission, this time to rally nations in forging a global pact protecting the oceans and marine life at the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) in Nice this June.

They were referring to the 100-day mobilization for the UNOC wherein public institutions, civil societies, volunteers, academics and businesses from the two countries will undertake activities protecting oceans and marine biodiversity.

“What we all need to do,” according to the senator “is to ensure that our fish and all the marine species do not choke on plastics.”

Legarda said that “we should be mindful of our daily wastage and all the things that we consume in our daily lives. That we are actually familiar with the protected areas, whether marine, terrestrial, in the uplands, etc., and know the importance of these protected areas. And to be conscious in our daily lives of the importance of our waters, of our oceans, of our waterways, and the connection of the rich to the sea.”

“Now it is no longer the time for just awareness. It is a time that we demand action. We demand accountability from our leaders, from us,” she said, adding, “I support and I give my full, full support in terms of time, resources and knowledge to the journey towards the Nice conference.”