The Philippines has incurred losses and damage estimated to reach P506.1 billion (approximately $10 billion) from climate-related hazards over a decade, underscoring its extreme vulnerability to the climate crisis despite contributing only 0.3 percent of the planet’s total greenhouse gas emissions, data gathered by the Department of Finance show.
In a statement Tuesday, DoF said this amount made up 98.2 percent of the country’s total estimated losses and damages from 2010 to 2020 of P515.51 billion (around $10.6 billion).
This staggering amount is equivalent to an annual average of P48.9 billion, which is about 0.33 percent of the annual average gross domestic product of the Philippines.
Located in the typhoon belt and the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Philippines constantly experiences unavoidable losses and damage amounting to 0.5 percent of its annual GDP primarily from an increasingly unpredictable climate, the DoF said.
Meanwhile, a legislator from Camarines Sur called on the world's major economies to make good on their commitment to provide financing for climate change mitigation projects in poor countries.
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte raised the call following President Rodrigo Duterte's appeal to G20 countries to deliver on their over-a-decade-old commitment to mobilize $100 billion in annual financing and support.
This would help climate-vulnerable countries like the Philippines implement adaptation and mitigation measures to reverse the devastating effects of the climate crisis, he said.
The Philippines is struck by around 20 tropical cyclones every year and an almost daily occurrence of seismic shocks.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said the Philippines, being a climate-vulnerable country, had much at stake in reversing thedevastating effects of global warming.
“As I have said on many occasions, I am determined to set the Philippines as an example for all nations in setting the standards for mitigating the impact of climate change. I want us to be a world leader in this area through our climate ambition,” Dominguez said.
Dominguez, who is chairman-designate of the Climate Change Commission, heads the Philippine delegation to the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, United Kingdom.
The Philippines has committed to a projected greenhouse gas emission reduction and avoidance of 75 percent from 2020 to 2030 for the sectors of agriculture, wastes, industry, transport, and energy, as its National Determined Contribution to the Paris Agreement.
According to the DoF, the latest Fiscal Risk Statement released this year by the Bureau of the Treasury "cites the country’s exposure to natural disasters as a major source of downside risks for the national government's fiscal position.”
The FRS is drawn up annually to identify the fiscal risks to which the Philippines is exposed to, and at the same time, outlines the key programs and measures put up by the government to manage these risks. (See full story online at manilastandard.net)
In 2020 alone, based on the preliminary 2022 FRS, P74.75 billion-worth (approximately $1.49 billion) of damages have been recorded resulting from disasters, including three consecutive typhoons that have collectively caused the largest damages amounting to P69.02 billion(approximately $1.38 billion). Economic losses were estimated at P35.74 billion (approximately $714.8 million).
In 2019, a single tropical cyclone — Typhoon Tisoy (international code name: Kammuri) — recorded the most damages with a total of P6.6 billion (approximately $132.0 million), of which P2.9 billion (approximately $58 million) and P3.7 billion ($74 million) pertain to infrastructure and agriculture damages, respectively, the DOF said.
Losses and damage from extreme weather events reached 4 percent of GDP in 2013 because of Super Typhoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan), which killed over 6,000 people, according to the National Disaster and Risk Reduction and Management Council.
Dominguez earlier said given its high climate vulnerability, the Philippines ranked 9thout of 181 nations in the world as the most affected country from extreme weather events in the 2020 World RiskIndex.
The Global Climate Risk Index 2021, on the other hand, ranked the Philippines 4th among 10 countries most severely hit by extreme weather events from 2000 to 2019.
Being an archipelago, the Philippines is also greatly threatened by rising sea levels as an offshoot of global warming.
Based on satellite observations, the level of the Philippines’ surrounding seas has increased at a rate of 5.7-7.0 mm/year from 1993 to 2015, which is twice the highest global average rate of 2.8-3.6 mm/year observed between 1993 and 2010.
Sea level rise, which has been identified by the CCC’s reconstituted National Panel of Technical Experts as among the top 10 climate-induced risks in the country, is putting 64 coastal provinces, 822 coastal municipalities, and 25 major coastal cities at extreme risk.
The country had lost about 68 percent and 82 percent corals and seagrass cover, respectively, from 2009-2016, which was exacerbated by climate change impacts, such as coral bleaching and ocean acidification.
This has contributed to the dwindling fish catch as commercial fish move from warm to cooler and deep waters.
Villafuerte said the ongoing United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) highlights this key aspect of fighting climate change that has been exacerbated by developed economies that contribute the most greenhouse gas emissions, which are largely responsible for global warming.
Villafuerte said: "They cannot discuss climate change without discussing how to secure the funding for the adaptation and mitigation programs that developing countries need to be implementing now.“
“Trust and good faith are important elements in any negotiation. It seems these elements are fast eroding in COP26 unless the developed countries make good on their commitment they made 12 years ago to channel $100 billion a year to developing countries by 2022 for climate adaptation and mitigation measures."
Villafuerte noted that as pointed out by UN Secretary-General Antonio
Gutierres on the eve of COP26, “The time has passed for diplomatic niceties. If governments—especially G20 governments—do not stand up and lead this effort, we are headed for terrible human suffering.”
He said he agreed with Gutierres that the old carbon-burning model of development is a “death sentence” for economies and planet Earth.
Villafuerte said the disasters that had struck climate-vulnerable countries like the Philippines and even rich countries like the United
States as an offshoot of the now erratic weather patterns were merely a preview of what the whole world will experience soon unless all countries act now to fight climate change through concrete and doable actions.
On top of pushing climate financing pledges, Villafuerte agreed with
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, the head of the Philippine delegation to COP26, that developed economies should also scale up their carbon-reduction targets, given that they were the world's top greenhouse gas emitters.
As a former three-term governor of typhoon-battered Camarines Sur,
Villafuerte said he is aware of the devastating effects of super typhoons and other ill effects of climate change, especially on coastal communities.
Villafuerte has filed several climate-related measures in the Congress, among them, the creation of a Department of Disaster Resilience, establishment of green parks, implementation of a climate tax and an alternative power development strategy that will boost the share of “green” or renewable energy sources in the country’s energy mix and dramatically reduce its carbon footprint.