Solon says climate action is vital for reducing disaster risk

March 19, 2017

A lawmaker announced that dealing with climate change is very vital for building a disaster resilience community.

Senator Loren Legarda, the chair of the senate committee on climate change and UN global champion for resilience, said that climate change has been causing extreme weather events, thus, dealing with it is a critical disaster risk reduction measure.

“We have been experiencing how climate change is exacerbating natural hazards. The changing climate has been causing unprecedented heat levels resulting in severe drought or stronger episodes of El Niño. It is also causing stronger storms that bring storm surge, flooding, or landslide,” she said.

The senator explained, “For a nation that is visited by an average of 20 typhoons a year and experiences El Niño every 2-7 years, climate action should be a vital component of disaster risk reduction (DRR). Climate change adaptation (CCA) is one way to build disaster resiliA lawmaker announced that dealing with climate change is very vital for building a disaster resilience community.

Senator Loren Legarda, the chair of the senate committee on climate change and UN global champion for resilience, said that climate change has been causing extreme weather events, thus, dealing with it is a critical disaster risk reduction measure.
ence and preventing further warming of the climate is one way to reduce disaster risks.”

In 2011, Legarda spearheaded the integration of DRR and CCA through a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Climate Change Commission (CCC) and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).

The two agencies agreed to support the implementation of disaster and climate risk reduction measures identified by local government units (LGUs) through joint disaster and climate risk information coordination and knowledge management; and also to harmonize and coordinate the planning, development and implementation of local climate change action plans (LCCAP) and local DRR plans by LGUs.

Source: Manila Bulletin