The Philippines’ Climate Change Adaptation Plan: A Summary
In response to worsening climate change, nations around the world have developed climate action plans. A climate action plan is a set of goals and initiatives created by national governments to adapt to and mitigate climate change. Each has its own set of benchmarks to reach by a certain date.
Background Info: What Are Climate Action Plans?
The Philippines is highly susceptible to the damaging effects of climate change, and will experience them firsthand before other nations.
In this article, we’ll look at the climate change adaptation plan for the Philippines, one of the countries most affected by climate change.
Table of Contents
Overview of the Philippines’ Climate Change Adaptation Plan
- Food Security
- Water
- Environmental Stability
- Security
- Climate-Adaptive Industries
- Sustainable Energy
- Knowledge Development
Overview of the Philippines’ Climate Change Action Plan
The Philippines climate plan is titled the National Climate Change Action Plan. Adopted in 2010, the plan lays out a strategy for adapting to and mitigating climate change in the Philippines between 2011 to 2028.
The plan details the importance of analyzing carbon emissions, the agencies responsible for monitoring climate change effects, and the various institutions responsible for executing the strategies laid out in the plan. Its primary stated goal is to:
build the adaptive capacity of communities and increase the resilience of natural ecosystems to climate change, and optimize mitigation opportunities towards sustainable development (NCCAP Page 4).
The NCCAP details its goals within the “Action Plan” segment. The Action Plan is broken down into several subsections, which we’ll explain below.
Read the full plan: National Climate Change Action Plan.
Key Pillars of the Philippines’ Climate Change Adaptation Plan
The Action Plan focuses on seven areas:
- Food Security
- Water
- Environmental Stability
- Security
- Climate Sensitive Industries
- Sustainable Energy
- Knowledge Development
Each area entails a specific set of plans and goals. We’ll provide a breakdown of each pillar in the following sections.
Food Security
The Philippines are highly susceptible to the impacts of climate change, especially when it comes to food production. As such, their climate action plan makes food security a priority.
One goal of the plan is to introduce autonomous solutions for farmers such as “early warning systems” for farms to react to climate-driven natural disasters ahead of time. The two primary goals, however, are enhanced “resilience” against climate change for food production and for fisheries.
Ultimately, the plan aims to ensure food stability and security for civilians, especially the poor and impoverished.
Water
The Philippines’ climate change action plan focuses on the current inefficiencies of how agencies handle water. Federal bodies that oversee water usage, for example, are spread across 30 different offices, which makes climate response management difficult. Centralizing these offices is crucial for a better response.
The Philippines’ climate change adaptation plan’s overall goals for equitable distribution of water in the face of climate change threats are as follows:
- Restructuring water governance to respond to climate threats
- Ensuring a sustainable, safe source of drinking water
- Expanding knowledge in water sectors to mitigate damage caused by climate change.
Environmental Stability
Protecting ecosystems, forests, and land from disastrous climate change impacts is a main piece of the climate action plan.
The plan and goal of this section is straightforward: the protection of environmental biomes and restoration of damaged ecosystems – either caused by climate impacts or human impacts.
Long-term damage to ecological systems has disastrous cascading effects, ranging from habitat loss to food production problems. The secondary part of this goal is to ensure ecosystem services (services provided to humans by nature) are restored or maintained.
Security
National disasters and climate change impacts can cause loss of civil stability and social security. Protecting human welfare in the event of climate impact is another area of importance within the Philippines climate action plan. The goal is to protect the welfare and safety of people impacted by climate change, particularly the most vulnerable.
The main goals included in this section focus on:
- Adaptation and disaster risk reduction for all levels of society
- Creation of health emergency response systems and health systems resilient to climate change
- Creation of adaptive and secure settlements for humans and human services, including climate refugees
Climate-Adaptive Industries
Preparing a world ready for climate change also means developing foundations at the industry level. Whether that’s in production or business, the Philippines’ climate action plan hopes to encourage the creation of climate-aware industries.
They are defined in the plan as “climate smart,” meaning industries that are conscious of their carbon footprint and are using alternative energy sources for production.
The goals are to:
- Promote climate sensitive business plans and industries
- Maintain a sustainable livelihood within the context of climate smart jobs
- Plan for “green cities” and energy sources
Sustainable Energy
The main goal of this section of the adaptation plan is to escape petro fuels as the main energy source.
To do so, the Philippines climate change adaptation plan focuses on:
- Researching eco-friendly resources
- Reducing overall carbon load
- Creating a climate-conscious “rehabilitation” of the Philippines’ current energy sector
Alternative sources of energy they consider include geothermal, electric, solar, and hydropower.
The chart below shows the main energy sources used in the Philippines in 2009. Note that the highest source in 2009 came from imported oil. The plan designates increased energy self-sufficiency as a primary goal for the country’s energy sector.
Knowledge Development
Creating a socially conscious nation that understands the risks of climate change, combined with a learned public which understands how to “think green” are key elements of this section of the climate change adaptation plan.
To educate the public, the section goals are as follows:
- Granting resources and information to both professional and public sectors
- Having accessible reporting systems which can document the current effects of climate change
- Creating data pools of “timely, relevant information.”
In other words, the plan aims to create more science-based information on climate change that is widely accessible, in order to better inform the public and government and private sector responses to climate change.
The Philippines’ 2008 climate plan lays out a strategy for adapting to and mitigating climate change in the Philippines between 2011 to 2028. Learn more about the plan.