According to a press release, the Philippine government is mapping out its medium-term plan on priority moves for addressing climate change.
Climate Change Commission (CCC) Commissioner Lucille Sering said government is undertaking such action so the country can better adapt to climate change's repercussions like sea-level rise and surge of increasingly violent weather disturbances.
She noted such action also aims to help the country further lower its reported 0.27 percent share of the world's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions which experts identified as trapping heat in the atmosphere and raising global temperature, causing changes in climatic patterns worldwide.
"CCC is helping Department of Budget and Management (DBM) determine what kinds of projects to prioritize," she said Thursday during a round table discussion on findings in the World Bank (WB) publication 'World Development Report 2010 (WDR 2010)' which focuses on climate change and development.
WDR 2010 warns about threats climate change poses and calls for nations' collective action to address these.
Sering said CCC will coordinate closely with DBM and Department of Finance (DOF) to help ensure public funds, aside from official development aid (ODA), are available for the priority projects.
"We'll engage DBM and DOF in climate-proofing government's budget," she said.
She urged DOF to work out measures for increasing availability of climate funding for local government units nationwide since these are at the forefront of government's climate change adaptation and mitigation bid.
Climate change consultant and Ateneo de Manila University School of Government Dean Antonio La Vina said authorities are studying how much government needs for its bid against climate change so the amount can be included in future public budget proposals.
Globally, however, he said climate change adaptation and mitigation funding that developing nations like the Philippines need is equivalent to an estimated one percent of the world's gross domestic product over and above ODAs for these.
Experts estimated this much funding requirement for developing nations as they project climate change to hit hardest there.
Developing nations are expected to bear some 75 percent to 80 percent of damage-related costs from climate change, WDR 2010 pointed out.
To help meet climate change's challenges, WB climate and geo-information scientist Dr. Alexander Lotsch said countries worldwide must join forces and undertake measures appropriate for conditions in each.
"A climate-smart world is possible if we act now, act together and act differently," he said when presenting, during the roundtable discussion, key findings from WDR 2010.
Among needed collective moves of countries are learning climate change adaptation, more GHG emission reduction from the developed world and intensified cooperation to buffer shocks like food shortage, he noted.
Local cellular service provider SMART Communications reported increasingly engaging in activities related to climate change.
Aside from helping address this global scourge, SMART public affairs head Ramon Isberto said such activities are enabling the company to function more efficiently and to generate savings from its operation.
These activities include tapping environment-friendly renewable alternative power supply from the sun and wind as well as continuously upgrading SMART's facilities, he said at the round table event.
SMART and its partner company Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company are also into tree-planting to help preserve the environment, he continued.
He reported personnel from both companies planted last year over 380,000 seedlings and mangrove propagules.
"Tree-planting is an old strategy but it still works," he noted.
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