Climate change project kicks off

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines — The AsianCitiesAdapt, a project that brings together science and policy to address climate change issues in four pre-identified cities each in the Philippines and India, was launched recently in this city.

The AsianCitiesAdapt project is a partnership between the city government and the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), together with Postdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and the University of the Philippines National Engineering Center (UP-NEC).

In a press conference, Regional Director of ICLEI Southeast Asia Secretariat Victorino Aquitania stressed that the project aims to reduce the risks of climate change impacts faced by cities through an integrated and cyclical management approach which, he said, would help cities in increasing their economic, social and environmental resilience.

“Baguio City will be the pilot area here in the Philippines and the workshop is only the start of a series of activities. Afterwards we will go to the other target cities (Dagupan, San Fernando and Tuguegarao) by August and September,” Aquitania said.

“With the help of our science partners, we will assist the city in assessing its vulnerability to climate change. From there, together they will develop a scenario that should lead to the formulation of climate change adaptation strategies and action plans,”Aquitania added.

Meantime, Councilor Betty Lourdes Tabanda affirmed that the city government has legally adopted the project through a signed Memorandum of Understanding with ICLEI for the enhancement of climate change adaptation and mitigating measures geared towards protecting lives and properties from the serious negative effects of climate change.

“We are open and very receptive to the idea. We are hoping that through this particular project, the city will be provided with scientific data, which will be our basis or guide in the preparation of an integrated adaptation and mitigation plan to face or minimize the impact of climate change,” Tabanda said.

After the plan is formulated, it will be submitted to the council for official adoption and for the provision of resources. Concrete action plans will then be formulated to address the different climate change issues or concerns of the city, Tabanda added.

Project Coordinator for the AsianCitiesAdapt project is the ICLEI European Secretariat (Germany) headed by its Director for Sustainability Management Holger Robrecht and being supported the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, based on a decision of the Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany. –DEXTER A. SEE, Manila Bulletin