Senator seeks anticipatory climate finance law

Sen. Loren Legarda called for a shift from disaster response to anticipatory climate financing, urging the government to release funds before calamities strike to protect vulnerable communities and strengthen national resilience.

Legarda made the call Thursday, April 30, 2026, in her keynote address at the Asia Conference on Climate Change and Disaster Resilience at the Asian Institute of Management in Makati City.

The conference, themed “From Risk to Readiness: Investing in Climate Futures in Asia,” gathered representatives from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Climate Change Commission, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, and leaders from climate-vulnerable cities.

Legarda recalled that three years ago, she warned of an “existential threat” as climate change intensified risks from rising sea levels, stronger typhoons, longer droughts, and agricultural collapse.

She also cited United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres’ description of the climate crisis as an era of “global boiling.”

Legarda said disasters are now worsening food insecurity, citing the global unavailability of fertilizers and the destruction of fossil fuel facilities as factors that could accelerate climate feedback loops and food crises.

Across the Asia-Pacific, she said communities from the Mekong Delta to the Pacific Islands face converging risks from climate volatility, economic exposure, and uneven fiscal capacity.

“We have become experts in counting the dead and repairing the broken, but we have not yet mastered the art of anticipating the blow,” Legarda said.

She pointed to what she called the dangerous “First-Mile/Last-Mile” disconnect, where global funds and national policies exist but arrive too late to prevent losses on the ground.

“This disconnect is critical. It is the space where dreams are shattered and lives are lost. Not because the Philippines lacks resources but because we release those resources too late. Therefore, this is my challenge to you, and my promise to our people: We must legislate for anticipation,” she said.

Legarda outlined three urgent priorities: legislative innovation, protection for vulnerable families, and a call for mayors and development partners to stop financing projects that restore risks rather than reduce them.

“We must tear down the firewall between “relief” and “readiness.” Our national budget has long treated climate finance as a post-mortem expense. We allocate billions for after, but pennies for just before. We need to activate resources for anticipatory use,” she said.

She proposed a model of “Conditional Early Action,” which would pre-position funds in local government accounts for retrofitting schools, buying early warning systems, and preparing portable food reserves before disasters strike.

Legarda said the Department of Budget and Management should be allowed to disburse disaster funds based on forecasts, not only after a state of calamity has been declared.

“Why? Because the most cost-effective decision is often the earliest one – the choice to build right before the risk fully materializes. We need a budget amendment that allows the Department of Budget and Management to disburse disaster funds based on a forecast, not just a declaration of a state of calamity,” she said.

Legarda said fiscal policy must reach families before danger peaks, particularly households forced to evacuate from flooding and other climate hazards.

“Fiscal policy is meaningless if it does not reach the mother packing her children into a tricycle to flee a flooding home,” she said.

She urged the government to simplify trigger mechanisms for local aid, saying cash transfers should be automatic when the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration forecasts a storm surge of a certain magnitude.

“We need to embed anticipatory action into the Conditional Cash Transfer program. Give families the liquidity to evacuate early, to buy their own emergency kits, to store their own rice, and survive unscathed and with dignity,” Legarda said.

She said anticipatory finance must prioritize women, indigenous peoples, older persons, persons with disabilities, and residents of geographically isolated areas because they face differentiated and compounded risks.

Legarda also called on local governments to revise Annual Investment Plans if they do not account for extreme climate events and economic shocks.

“If your infrastructure plans assume that things will always be normal, pivot to nature-based solutions as soon as possible,” she said.

She urged the ADB and the World Bank to assess past lending patterns and determine whether financed projects have made communities more vulnerable or less so.

“If we are serious about resilience, then our financing, both the loans and the GAA, must stop restoring risk and finally start reducing it,” she said.

Legarda said development partners could support grants and highly concessional loans for climate and disaster risk finance, insurance, and trigger-based risk transfer tools such as parametric insurance.

She cited as an example an insurance mechanism that pays out when winds reach 120 kilometers per hour, instead of six months later after a damage assessment.

“Resilience is also financial. It is about liquidity. It is about the speed of the peso moving from the national treasury to a local barangay before the storm makes landfall. Central banks, regulators, and development finance institutions mustn’t treat anticipatory action as a social expenditure. It is an exercise in risk management; it protects macroeconomic stability, reduces financial shocks, safeguards long-term growth, and is a step towards genuine climate justice,” she said.

She said anticipatory finance should reduce risk at the design stage, not after failure.

Legarda said infrastructure planning must ensure that major public investments do not come at the cost of natural capital.

“It is strategically making investments in disaster ready infrastructure, and making sure that when we invest a Trillion Pesos in highways, we do not spend the same amount in lost natural capital and instead invest just as heavily in ensuring the resilience of the ecosystems that will see us through,” she said.

Legarda also emphasized the role of young Filipinos in climate and disaster resilience, saying the country must invest not only in infrastructure but also in the generation that will build and sustain it.

She cited the Philippine Resilience Awards, which honored young Filipinos working on disaster preparedness, environmental protection, and climate resilience.

She named Vince Alvic Pajenado of Northern Samar, who experienced the devastation of Typhoon Ambo and later mobilized youth-led disaster preparedness and mangrove reforestation.

She also cited the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology team that developed “Project SIGNAL,” a technology initiative meant to maintain communication during severe storms.

Legarda recognized Zhaun Astrud Ortega in Davao for advocating the protection of watersheds and urban forests.

“We also expect our scholars at AIM for the course in Executive Master in Disaster Risk and Crisis Management, and Master of Science in Data Science will yield innovative and strategic pivots to face an ecological renewal. If anything, they should have learned not to waste a good crisis,” she said.

The conference showcased programs such as AIM’s graduate scholarships in disaster risk and data science, which organizers said are intended to build a nationwide pipeline of skilled resilience leaders.

Legarda said young Filipinos should be given priority access to the People’s Survival Fund and opportunities under the Philippine Ecosystem and Natural Capital Accounting System law, which she authored.

PENCAS, enacted as Republic Act No. 11995, seeks to account for the role and value of the country’s natural resources in economic and policy decision-making.

“These young Filipinos represent a different kind of “energy pivot.” While we rightly discuss the transition to renewable energy sources—the shift from coal to solar, wind, and geothermal—we must also recognize the human energy of our youth as our most potent renewable resource,” Legarda said.

“Disaster risk reduction must go beyond technical engineering; it must be a social investment. To truly move from risk to readiness, we must invest in the energies and capacities of our youth. They have the innovation to design the early warning systems of tomorrow, the passion to lead their communities to higher ground, and the moral clarity to demand that we act now, not later. Let us give them first crack at the People’s Survival Funds, and let them lose on the opportunities our PENCAS law opened up. I authored these two measures thinking that first and foremost, it will be the youth that will push them forward as the new architects of our preparedness and resilience,” she said.

Legarda said preparedness should be measured by avoided losses rather than post-disaster reconstruction.

“Preparedness is measured by what we prevent from being lost and not by what we rebuild after. It is the discipline and rigor of building right at first sight so that resilience is designed into our systems,” she said.

“The climate crisis is here, and it is intense. But so is our resolve. Let us continue to work together for the climate—for life, livelihood, and the future of every Filipino,” Legarda said.