Department of Finance Assistant Secretary Paola Sherina Alvarez (Screengrab from RTVM)
MANILA -- The Philippines will seek developed countries' funding assistance for nationwide adaptation to climate change which is mainly caused by these countries' respective greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
"We'll ask developed countries to help us fund our initiatives for us to adapt to the changing climate," Department of Finance (DOF) Assistant Secretary Paola Sherina Alvarez said Tuesday during the virtual Sulong Pilipinas climate change conference for the youth.
She said such bid for climate justice is necessary since the Philippines accounts for less than 1.0 percent of global GHG emissions but is among countries most at risk for and vulnerable to climate change's impacts.
Alvarez noted climate financing in the Philippines is focused more on adaptation than on GHG emission mitigation as climate change is already threatening the country.
The Philippines will make its pitch for climate justice during the forthcoming Conference of the Parties (COP) to UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, she added.
The United Kingdom already announced hosting the COP in Glasgow in November this year.
Experts said fossil fuel-fired power generation and other human activities are increasing the accumulation of GHG emissions in the atmosphere so global temperature continues rising, changing climate.
Climate change's impacts on the Philippines are sea level and temperature rise as well as increasing frequency of extreme weather events like super typhoons, they noted.
The changing climate "has a lot of devastating effects on our country especially in terms of our economy," said Alvarez, noting why the Philippines needs to mobilize local and foreign climate financing.
She said in the long run, the Philippines is expected to incur some PHP177 billion per year in terms of losses to public and private assets due to typhoons and earthquakes alone.
The country in the next 50 years has a 40 percent and 20 percent chance of experiencing a loss exceeding PHP989 billion and PHP1,525 billion, respectively, she said further.
Alvarez noted the estimated cost to implement climate change mitigation action for the country's energy, forestry, industry, and transport sectors is already around USD4.12 billion (PHP199.2 billion) from 2015 to 2030.
"Climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction will become an even bigger challenge for the country if natural hazards are less predictable in the future," she also said.
The Department of Finance (DOF) spearheaded the Sulong Pilipinas conference to brief the youth on climate change and the need for this sector to help address such a problem. (PNA)
