Climate risk and adaptation country profile: Vulnerability, risk reduction, and adaptation to climate change: Philippines

This paper profiles the vulnerability, risk reduction, and adaptation to climate change of the Philippines. The Philippines’ main economic sectors are agriculture and industry, with agriculture contributing 14% of GDP and employing over a third of the population. Commonly occurring hazards include floods, droughts, typhoons, landslides and mudslides, earthquakes, and volcanoes. Recent decades have witnessed an increase in damaging extreme events, such as heavy rainfall and tropical cyclone activity, and this trend is likely to continue under a future climate.

The paper identifies five priority adaption measures:

• The Philippines has established an autonomous Climate Change Commission affiliated with the Office of the President, which serves as the sole government body for coordinating and evaluating policies and programs related to climate change. In addition to overseeing the development of Local Climate Change Action Plans, the Commission is formulating a National Framework Strategy on Climate Change6 that seeks to build climate resilience across major sectors. The framework focuses on the following key principles and objectives: Climate resilient and sustainable agriculture, as well as food production and distribution systems;
• Watershed protection and management; ecosystem rehabilitation and restoration, and integrated ecosystem-based management;
• Resilient infrastructure and adaptive human settlements;
• Climate-responsive health and social protection service delivery; and
• Disaster risk reduction and management.