Philippine LGUs. Climate Change Awareness to Action

LEGAZPI CITY (04 November 2010) – I have been following climate change from Al Gore and his Nobel Prize for Peace, and it has been following me ever since. In this city that is a good 500 km south of Manila, I noted today 4 climate changes: (1) in travel & tours, (2) in extreme rain, (3) in the level of readiness of Governors to accept and do more about climate change in their own jurisdictions, and (4) in education on climate change.

(1) Travel & tours. Yes, today there was a climate change in air trips taken. "The travel advisory hurt us," Albay Governor Joey Salceda told me, speaking of the attendance of local government units, LGUs to the Executive General Assembly of the League of Provinces of the Philippines, LPP held in conjunction with the LGU Summit+3i held at the new La Piazza Hotel & Convention Center in Legazpi City. Only 19 Governors arrived this morning for the beginning session of Day 1 of the Assembly/Summit; usually, 30 Governors attend meetings, Salceda said. Foreign embassies had issued a Travel Advisory against the Philippines the day before, warning tourists about threats of terrorist bombings. Sometimes, Filipinos take such travel advisories seriously.

(2) Extreme rain. Yes, there was sudden and extreme rain at about 8 this morning as I got off at the Central Bus Terminal of Legazpi City. In fact, it had been raining the whole night as I rode a St Christopher bus from the terminal in Farmers Cubao, Quezon City to Legazpi. The sound of that heavy rain was unusually loud to my old ears. To me, it was a warning to those attending the LGU Summit+3i that climate change is real and we have to deal with it ASAP before it deals with us sooner or later.

(3) Level of LGU readiness. After the presentation of Salceda and following his answers to the questions that mostly media people leveled on him, I believe that most if not all of the Governors present finally were convinced that concerns about climate change adaptation, climate change mitigation, and/or disaster risk reduction, had to be addressed. I can sense that in the Hierarchy of Desire, in the AIDA for climate change affirmative action, they have graduated from Awareness up to Interest up to Desire and now are up and ready for Action.

I say that even granting that our local executives have yet to regurgitate and digest in full what those concepts really mean. It´s not easy, and the academicians are not helping any. Climate change, climate change adaptation, climate change mitigation, disaster risk reduction, disaster risk management: all those unpalatable words you have to swallow and digest, and they are essentially indigestible, especially if you didn´t take science, so pity the local executives! Those CC, CCA, CCM, DRR, DRM have to be tackled head-on because they are all necessary for the Philippines to meet the MDGs as mandated by the United Nations, according to Salceda. That is to say, if you design your climate change adaptation to reduce the number of poor people, you are also meeting the MDG goal on poverty reduction. If you implement a policy that allows a part of the environment to be exploited and at the same time allow Mother Nature to replenish itself in a natural cycle, you are meeting the MDG goal on environmental sustainability. In other cases, climate change affirmative action should be easy. Like, you can reduce your carbon footprint if you have your town save more energy, so that your town is so much more environment-friendly.

(4) Education about climate change. Late in the afternoon, Salceda, Meyer and Secretary Heherson Alvarez of the Climate Change Commission signed a Memorandum of Understanding establishing in Albay the Climate Change Academy. You must institutionalize your response to climate change, Salceda said. The Academy will institutionalize the learning process.

The LGU Summit+3i is a national conference on "Mainstreaming Climate Change Adaptation in the Philippines." You want CCA to be an everyday activity in the villages. That´s where it is needed most. It will be noted that the National Framework Strategy on Climate Change of the Philippines has pointed out the high vulnerability of the archipelago to climate-related dangers like extreme typhoons and floods, especially in the many low-lying areas. The "+3i" in the name indicates that the Summit results ought to be applicable in the 3 major islands that comprise the archipelago. The successful experiences must be shared nationally. It also happens that 2010 is the 3rd year after the CCA program started in Albay in 2007.

Summit+3i has been designed to bring together scientists, academic partners, 81 Governors, 81 Vice Governors, 81 Provincial Planning Officers, third level officials in the forefront achieving MDGs and ensuring climate change adaptation, civil society leaders, legislative and judicial partners, community practitioners and development partners. The Summit+3i website says "the main objective of the Summit is to provide a venue for critical actors to agree that adaptation is a critical development concern" (lgusummit31.com). The website considers LGU officials as front-liners in meeting the commitment towards MDGs and therefore, they have to think on a wider horizon and be flexible in tackling the variability and extremes of climate.

Speakers for the day are: Governor Alfonso Umali Jr, National President of the League of Provinces of the Philippines, LPP; Renaud Meyer, Country Director of the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP; Sheila Marie Encabo, Director, NEDA Agriculture Staff & Programme Coordinator, MDG-F 1656 JP; Jerry Velasquez, Senior Regional Coordinator, United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction; the Albay Governor, who is Chairman RDCR 5 & Co-Convenor of the LGU Summit+3i; and Nong Rangasa, Executive Director of CIRCA & Conference Director of LGU Summit+3i.

A major lesson for the day: Anything the LGUs do for CCA and CCM and DRR can be directly linked to the MDGs of each country. This is important for local executives to understand. As far as the MDGs are concerned, for up to 2015, the Summit website says the Philippines is too slow in minimizing poverty, insuring food security, humanizing health, and working toward environmental sustainability. In other words, we Filipinos still have too many poor; we still are not self-sufficient in food; we still have not improved much the overall health of the people; and we still are exploiting Mother Nature beyond her capacity to regenerate herself.

The website cites 3 reasons for the inadequate progress in fulfilling the MDGs for the country: inadequate investment, ineffective government policies, and lack of commitment. Meaning, there are not enough funds committed to achieve the goals; government policies do not work out well; and there is not enough political will from top to bottom - and, I might add, from bottom to top. Lack of political will from the top is failure in leadership; lack of political will from the bottom is mendicancy.

The 4th reason, according to the same source, is climate change itself: largely unpredictable weather, sudden extremes such as of temperature as well as rainfall. Incidentally, towards explaining "climate change," Incidentally, I note that the Summit website has 4 words that I think can be used as a simple definition for the modern phenomenon; Climate change is "climate variability and extremes." You can´t predict the weather anymore; the patterns of the past have disappeared. You can´t ignore the weather anymore; when it rains, you can almost smell danger; when there is a typhoon, you worry much that there is too much damage unlike before.

If I may add a 5th reason: The Philippines has a "limited capacity to undertake climate risk-based planning and project implementation" (lgusummit3i.com). We Filipinos don´t do much climate change affirmative action. I´m not surprised because we cannot affirm what we don´t understand. The very concepts of climate change adaptation, climate change mitigation, disaster risk reduction, and disaster risk management are not easy to imbibe because scientists flood us with technical papers and their definitions merely drown us with verbiage.

In the press conference late in the afternoon, the genius of the Albay Governor showed in his answers to questions that were professional as well as personal. Noting that the United Nations calls him a "Senior Champion" in climate change action as Governor of Albay, and that he refers to himself as a "Green Economist," if you will observe with an open mind, it is easy to see that Salceda is a first-rate manager who also happens to be a first-class wit.

Among other things, he said during the press conference:

"Preferential treatment for the poor is why I entered politics."

"Everything you do should enhance the dignity of people."

"It´s not mystical. We did not suddenly discover climate change. Many of what we are doing actually is climate change adaptation. Like improving the drainage."

"I saw that we cannot achieve MDG if we did not do climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction. The CCA is just a tool, not the end. And you have to deal with DRR."

"Adaptation should not create more problems."

"I saw that climate change adaptation was becoming the most important duty of society. Not simply mandate but duty."

"How can you sustain that? Environmental sustainability. You cannot implement CCA, DRR at the expense of the environment."

"Para lumakas ang loob ng local government, kailangan nila ng science." To strengthen the resolve of local government, they need science.

"Mas maganda kung ang resulta ng science, ibagay sa local kaysa sa national. Sobra nang studies." It would be better if the results of science fit the local situation rather than the national in a broad way. We have too many national studies already. Frank H understands that what Salceda is saying is this: We need global thinking less and more local action now.

Someone referred to his gift of genius, and Salceda said, "The best way to manage a gift is to use it for the good of all." If you give in the Christian sense, you are multiplying the gift. Following Salceda, I say the best way to manage your resources, whoever you are and whatever they are, is to use each for the good of all. Then you would be doing CCA, CCM, DRR and improving your carbon footprint even if you couldn´t define them to save your life. In science or faith, you don´t have to understand everything - you just have to believe.