APEC leaders urged to address climate change
ILOILO CITY – With the enormous ill effects of climate change, did the governments of the world do enough to meet its challenges?
Sen. Loren Legarda posed this question yesterday to more than a hundred Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) delegates during the 9th APEC Senior Disaster Management Officials’ Forum here.
Legarda, who chairs the Senate committee on environment and natural resources and the committee on climate change, pointed out that the impact of weather extremes and disaster risks has affected 1.5 billion people worldwide, 700,000 of whom were killed and 23 million left homeless. The total economic loss was pegged at more than $1.3 trillion. Legarda, whose speech was delivered by climate change commissioner Emmanuel de Guzman, pushed to strengthen the inter-economy cooperation in dealing with disasters.
“Disasters know no boundaries or borders. As we make our respective economies resilient and sustainable, the whole region will benefit if we can support each other through strengthened collaborative research, technology transfer, capacity building and knowledge sharing,” she said.
She then challenged delegates to come up with an APEC framework for disaster risk reduction, similar to free trade agreements or trade facilitation agreements, as she acknowledged the benefits brought by APEC in terms of investments and promoting business in Asia-Pacific region.
“The people in this room have the power to influence our leaders to head towards a brighter future, a safer earth. Let us all become champions of change we want. Let us all become victors instead of victims in this only living planet that we call home,” Legarda said.
Legarda cited the United Nations Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction 2015 to support her claim of a growing global inequality, increasing hazard exposure, rapid urbanization and over-consumption of energy and natural capital as among the major factors that would “drive risk to dangerous and unpredictable levels.”
Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, chairman of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, acknowledged the increasing complexities of disasters resulting from natural hazards and human induced elements.
“The prevalence of disasters in the ‘new normal’ manifestation has serious (effects) on our international economic relations as it cuts across several APEC concerns and priorities,” he said, noting that member economies incurred over $100 billion in disaster-related losses in the past decade.
LGU help needed
At the local government level, Legarda said disaster risk reduction and management councils must ensure the integration of disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation to local development plans, programs and budgets and use it as a strategy for sustainable development and poverty reduction.
Legarda said the challenge now is actually how to make the national DRR-related laws work for communities.
She added that following the experience during Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), the government has demonstrated significant improvement in executing prevention, mitigation, preparedness and response measures, including preemptive evacuation, pre- positioning of goods and enabling quick responses to needs.
She also mentioned the government’s progress on the way it conducts risk assessment through the Pre-Disaster Risk Assessment-Actions, Protocols and Programs, a tool that addresses possible risks and impacts in a manner that is hazard-specific, area-focused and time-bound.
“This means that land use plans should be risk-sensitive; cities and human settlements must be inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable; multi-hazard early warning systems should be in place and strengthened; and the public must know the risk from hazards and the appropriate action to take to prevent the loss of lives and livelihoods,” Legarda said.
She also called on the support of the business sector, as she pointed out the importance of better investments in flood control, forest management, hazard identification, mapping and assessment, research and development and risk financing.
She also urged the untapped members of the community – women, children, the elderly, people living with disabilities and indigenous peoples – to take on an active role in DRR.
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