Legarda Supports Call for Bigger Budget for Climate Adaptation

Senator Loren Legarda today echoed the call of the World Bank to allocate more funds for climate change adaptation.

“We must invest in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation not only to reduce the loss of lives and damage to property but also to significantly decrease expenditures on post-disaster needs,” said Legarda, the United Nations Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation for Asia-Pacific.

The World Bank said that nations should allocate at least two percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) for programs on climate change mitigation.

However, the Philippines Climate Public Expenditure and Institutional Review (PH-CPEIR) revealed that the country spends only 0.3 percent of its GDP for the same, or only P18.94 billion out of the Philippines’ P6.31-trillion GDP in 2012.

“The World Bank estimates that for every dollar invested in disaster reduction measures saves seven to ten dollars in losses from natural disasters. We must ensure that all the efforts of the government on the development and progress of our nation and our people would not go to waste because we have not made them disaster-resilient,” said Legarda.

She added that disasters cause damages to housing, service infrastructure, savings, productive assets and human losses.

“We have to reduce livelihood vulnerability to natural hazards so that we can eradicate income poverty, improve food security, and reduce hunger. We will never tire of reiterating our call for heightened action on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation because we have to free ourselves from the exhausting and costly cycle of rebuilding our communities every single time a natural hazard occurs,” Legarda concluded.