The Roman Catholic Church and climate advocacy groups have urged regional leaders to adopt binding laws on climate accountability, end fossil fuel subsidies, and protect environmental defenders, as the Philippines hosted the 48th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit this year in Cebu.
Loss and Damage Fund Hosted in Manila
With the Loss and Damage Fund Board hosted in Manila, Bishop Gerry Alminaza, president of Caritas Philippines, said this is "symbolically important because the Philippines is one of the countries most exposed to climate disasters." However, he added, "Symbolism alone is not enough. The key challenge is ensuring that funds do not get trapped in bureaucracy, politicization, or top-down implementation."
Alminaza noted that the country is still receiving far more climate-related financing in the form of loans rather than grants, despite being one of the countries least responsible for the climate crisis yet among the most vulnerable to its impacts. "This deepens what many civil society groups and faith-based organizations now describe as 'ecological debt' — where historically high-emitting countries continue to benefit economically while climate-vulnerable countries like the Philippines bear the social, environmental, and financial costs," the Catholic charity leader told SunStar Philippines on Friday, May 8, 2026.
"The reality on the ground is that every major typhoon, flood, drought, or climate-induced displacement forces the Philippine government to borrow more for reconstruction, adaptation, and emergency response. This worsens public debt while social services such as health, education, agriculture support, and disaster preparedness face shrinking fiscal space. Communities effectively end up paying twice: first through climate impacts, and second through debt repayments," he added.
Climate Justice and Debt Burdens
The recent conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels in Santa Marta, Colombia emphasized that climate justice cannot happen without addressing debt burdens in the Global South and accelerating a just fossil fuel phaseout. "For countries like the Philippines, climate finance must be: primarily grant-based; directly accessible to affected communities; and treated as part of developed countries' obligations, not charity," said the prelate in a separate report from Catholic news site UCA News.
Ian Rivera, national coordinator of Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ), also said that the country's hosting of this year's Asean summit "is an opportunity to underscore the need to mobilize climate finance to address the region's increasing vulnerability to the climate crisis, loss and damage, adaptation and the need for energy and just transition." As a community, Southeast Asian countries must collectively assert rich countries to fill the Loss and Damage fund in the face of Super El Niño, massive bleaching in the Coral Triangle, rising sea levels, and weather extremes, Rivera told SunStar Philippines. Without ambitious and urgent climate actions, especially from the Global North, there is no future to speak of, much more to navigate on how to survive, he added.
World Risk Index 2025 Rankings
In the World Risk Index 2025, the Philippines ranked as the most disaster-prone country globally, with Indonesia and Myanmar also among the top six. Other Asean members such as Vietnam and Thailand face moderate but significant risks tied to agriculture and flooding, while Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Brunei, and Singapore are ranked lower but remain vulnerable to climate impacts, particularly urban heat and flooding.
"Asean members in the top 20 of the World Risk Index 2025—the Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Vietnam—must, together with the support of lower-risk members, strengthen the case for climate finance and ecological debt negotiations," Rivera said. "A united bloc approach highlights the urgency of reparations and sustained climate finance flows from the Global North. Without decisive collective action, Asean's most vulnerable countries risk spiraling debt from disaster recovery and adaptation costs," he added.
Transition Away from Fossil Fuels
Meanwhile, Anj Dacanay, lead campaigner of Energyshift Southeast Asia, a civil society group that focuses on accelerating the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy in Southeast Asia, stressed that "Asean leaders must confront a hard truth." Amid Asean leaders planning to map out a coordinated response to the escalating Middle East crisis, Dacanay maintained the situation "is exposing Asean's persistent and dangerous dependence on imported fossil fuels."
"This cycle will continue as long as Asean governments remain locked into fossil fuel dependence. Short-term mitigation measures are not enough. Without decisive structural change, Asean will remain vulnerable to every external shock," Dacanay said. Currently, 183 oil and gas fields exist within the Coral Triangle: 113 are operational, 13 are in development, and 50 have been discovered. If all explored extraction fields are allowed to operate, the area covered by offshore oil and gas fields in this marine region will increase from 1% to a devastating 16%, Dacanay said.
These blocks overlap with 24% of coral, 37% of mangroves, and 22% of seagrass ecosystems in the region. "Furthermore, 15 of 19 operating liquified natural gas (LNG) terminals in the Coral Triangle are located within 10 kilometers of sensitive marine ecosystems, including coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrass beds," Dacanay added. Proposed export capacity stands at 24 million tons per annum (mtpa), with import capacity at 25.9 mtpa. The proposals for gas power plants within the Coral Triangle amount to a combined capacity of 64,383 MW, the group said on May 8.
"We call on Asean to acknowledge and act on their responsibility for the climate crisis, upholding the principle of Common But Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR). The Global South, including Southeast Asia, must not be forced to follow the same destructive path," Dacanay, who is also the Southeast Asia Just Energy Transition Head at the Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development (Ceed), said.
Summit Arrests
As this developed, at least four climate activists from Greenpeace were arrested on May 8 after they staged a peaceful protest to call on Asean to shift the region away from fossil fuel dependence. "Instead of silencing peaceful protest, Asean leaders must listen to the message," Greenpeace said in a statement on May 8. The EcoWaste Coalition also condemned the arrest, saying that unlike industrial polluters and corrupt politicians, the Greenpeace activists inflicted no harm to the planet, people, and wildlife with their peaceful, non-violent action. "Instead of charging them, they should be honored for raising the people's demand for real, not cosmetic, solutions to the waste and plastic problems affecting our nations and citizens," said Aileen Lucero, national coordinator of EcoWaste Coalition. The activists were reportedly released by the Lapu-Lapu City Police on May 9, but were charged for allegedly violating the Public Assembly Act of 1985.
Preparation for Emerging Global Risks
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. called for more interconnectedness among Asean's 11 member-nations in anticipation of emerging global risks. "While the impact may differ from country to country in Asean at present, there is no denying that this disruption will have an impact on the future. Even if the tensions de-escalate in time, the damage to critical infrastructure, vital systems, and trust in general will continue to be felt for years to come," the president said during the Asean Summit Retreat at Mactan Expo, Cebu on May 8. According to Marcos, such risks were already anticipated in Asean 2045: Our Shared Future, which identified major power rivalries, supply-chain disruptions, and resource security issues as key challenges facing the Asean region.
