Philippines development plan must be climate change sensitive
Manila -- The country’s development plan must be climate change-sensitive and responsive to sustain the gains that the government wants to achieve in the next six years.
Senator Loren Legarda, Chair of the Senate Committee on Climate Change said it clearly established the imperative to mainstream disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation in our poverty-reduction and development strategies.
According to Legarda this is one concrete approach that was identified during discussions with World Bank officials During the Senate briefing on the United Nations-World Bank Publication “Natural Hazards, Unnatural Disasters” in February.
Legarda and National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Cayetano Paderanga Jr. agreed to establish a multi-sector committee to review the Medium Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP 2011-2016) and ensure that the government’s strategy is climate change-sensitive and responsive so that progress will not be hindered or stunted due to weather-related occurrences.
Legarda pointed out that having a disaster-resilient development plan would significantly reduce government expenditure on rehabilitation after every disaster.
She noted that the damage wrought by Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng in 2009 already require reconstruction fund of Php227 billion.
“A huge amount that could be used instead for other government priorities such as education, health, public infrastructure development, or agriculture and rural development, Legarda added.
Furthermore, the World Bank and UN joint report “Economics of Effective Prevention” says that annual global losses from natural hazards such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and flooding could triple to US$ 185 billion by the end of the century, even without calculating the impact of climate change. Climate change could add another US$28-68 billion from tropical cyclones alone.
These figures all the more support the demand for more and better spending for pro-active measures. Disasters maim and kill, Legarda said.
They devastate the environment and set back economic development. Yet disasters can be prevented if we have the political will to invest in risk reduction, the Senator added.
“For without effective disaster prevention, hundreds of lives, thousands of homes, billions worth of properties and livelihoods, even government's growth and revenue targets, specifically our development goals, can be at the mercy of a single extreme weather event,” Legarda concluded. (PIA-7/Minerva BC Newman with reports from the Office of Senator Legarda)