French honour for UNISDR champion

Source(s): United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction
Senator Loren Legarda receiving the Legion of Honour from Ambassador  Mr. Thierry Mathou acting on behalf of the French President Mr. Francois Hollande

Senator Loren Legarda receiving the Legion of Honour from Ambassador Mr. Thierry Mathou acting on behalf of the French President Mr. Francois Hollande

GENEVA, February 19, 2016 - The UN Global Champion for Resilience, Senator Loren Legarda of the Philippines, was conferred yesterday with the Legion of Honour award by the French government for her support to the COP21 in Paris last December which resulted in the Paris Agreement outlining concrete measures for climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Senator Legarda said: "I am deeply grateful to be conferred with the Legion of Honour award by the French government. C'est avec grand honneur que j'accepte ce prix," she said receiving the award in Manila at the French Embassy.

The Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte on 19 May 1802. It can be awarded to foreign nationals who have served France or the ideals it upholds.

Last year, Senator Legarda helped craft the Manila Call to Action on Climate Change, signed by President Francois Hollande and President Benigno Aquino III, urging the world to respond to climate change.

It was launched last February in the Philippines by UNISDR Champion and Philippines Senator, Loren Legarda, on the occasion of the State visit by French President, Francois Hollande.

Senator Legarda who is Chair of the Senate Committee on Climate Change, read the declaration with the French actress, Marion Cotillard, one of many high profile figures accompanying the French President on his mission to press home the urgency of reaching agreement this year on reducing carbon emissions.

On his arrival President Hollande called for a climate change alliance with the Philippines that would incentivize similar co-operation between rich and poor nations at the COP21 climate conference in Paris later in the year.

Highlighting the consequences of failure to broker a new universal agreement at the COP21 Conference on Climate in Paris, Senator Legarda said: “The debate continues on whether to act now or to delay implementing mitigation policies until a future date. In the meantime, lives continue to perish."

Yesterday, Senator Legarda said: "With climate resilience as the main agenda, our two countries, France and the Philippines, formed a special alliance, in which we shared a common vision that can only be made possible with the preservation of this one planet we all live in. The fight is not finished. It has just begun."

Senator Loren Legarda has a long established reputation as an advocate for disaster risk reduction at home and abroad. The Philippines is one of the five most disaster prone countries in the world with a well-developed system of disaster risk governance including a National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council and the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA).

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