PHL Faces Record Cyclones But Leads in Climate Resilience

June 5, 2025

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By Francis Allan L. Angelo

The Philippines experienced a historic onslaught of tropical cyclones in 2024, a stark indicator of the escalating climate crisis that is reshaping life across the South-West Pacific, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization.

The “State of the Climate in the South-West Pacific 2024” report, released Thursday in Geneva, warned that the region endured its hottest year on record, with sea levels rising faster than the global average and marine heatwaves affecting an oceanic area the size of Asia.

Nowhere was the dual reality of vulnerability and resilience more visible than in the Philippines.

From September to November 2024, the country faced 12 tropical cyclones—more than double its seasonal average—impacting 13 million people and displacing more than 1.4 million across 17 of its 18 regions.

Typhoons Trami, Kong-rey, and Man-yi brought torrential rains, flash floods, and storm surges that battered infrastructure, homes, and farmlands.

Preliminary estimates place total damage at $430 million (roughly PHP 25 billion), affecting thousands of households and straining emergency services.

Yet amid the destruction, the Philippines demonstrated a critical edge: preparedness.

The report cited the country’s early warning systems and anticipatory action protocols as instrumental in saving lives and securing livelihoods. 

In one highlighted case, coastal communities received emergency cash and warnings in time to evacuate and protect fishing boats ahead of Super Typhoon Man-yi’s landfall in November.

“This anticipatory action is not just about speed. It’s about dignity, community empowerment, and resilience,” said a spokesperson from the Food and Agriculture Organization, which coordinated relief operations with local agencies. sh transfers and mobilize coastal evacuations, demonstrating the value of proactive climate response models.

The initiative aligns with the Philippines’ National Adaptation Plan, submitted in 2024, which forecasts fewer storms in future decades, but warns that those that do form will be significantly more intense.

The WMO’s findings underscore how climate change is amplifying weather extremes in the South-West Pacific, home to some of the world’s most climate-vulnerable populations.

Driven in part by the lingering 2023–2024 El Niño, average land temperatures in the region rose 0.48 degrees Celsius above the 1991–2020 average.

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The Philippines, Brunei, and Singapore recorded their hottest years on record.

In April 2024, Metro Manila hit 38.8 degrees Celsius—its highest temperature ever—fanning fears of a heat-related public health crisis and exposing gaps in urban heat resilience.

The record-breaking heat was mirrored beneath the waves.

Ocean heat content in the South-West Pacific reached near-record levels, tying with 2021 and 2023 and just behind the record set in 2022.

Sea surface temperatures also broke historical records.

Marine heatwaves stretched across 40 million square kilometers—more than 10% of the global ocean—impacting biodiversity, fisheries, and food security.

“2024 was the warmest year on record in the South-West Pacific region,” said WMO Secretary-General Prof. Celeste Saulo. “Ocean heat and acidification combined to inflict long-lasting damage to marine ecosystems and economies. Sea-level rise is an existential threat to entire island nations.”

For Pacific island states, sea-level rise has become a slow-moving catastrophe.

The report documented that the region’s sea level is rising faster than the global average, pushing low-lying communities toward relocation.

In Fiji’s Serua Island, two decades of erosion and flooding have made parts of the village uninhabitable.

In 2024 alone, seawater breached homes, destroyed crops, and inundated graveyards.

“On two separate occasions, the island experienced such extreme flooding that it was possible to cross it entirely by boat,” the report noted.

Despite government offers of relocation, many residents resist leaving Serua due to the Indigenous Fijian concept of vanua—a deeply spiritual bond with ancestral land.

Elsewhere, environmental changes are transforming once-stable ecosystems.

Indonesia’s last tropical glacier in Papua continued its rapid retreat in 2024, losing 30–50% of its area since 2022.

Scientists project the glacier will disappear entirely by 2026, if current melting rates persist.

The disappearance of such glaciers removes a crucial source of freshwater and disrupts regional climate patterns, according to WMO experts.

The region also saw major flooding and landslides in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

Meanwhile, drought conditions plagued southern Australia and northern New Zealand, and rainfall was erratic across the rest of the Pacific.

In the Philippines, weather disruptions extended beyond typhoons.

Northern provinces recorded extreme precipitation, while other areas suffered flash floods due to oversaturated soils and urban drainage failures.

The WMO report frames these extremes as symptomatic of a deepening global climate emergency, but also highlights avenues for adaptation and resilience.

It praised the Early Warnings for All (EW4All) initiative as a “tangible, effective measure that can save lives now.”

The Philippines’ case study is central to that argument.

By using risk-informed early warnings and integrating climate data into community-level action plans, the country minimized fatalities during one of its worst storm seasons in history.

The success is also rooted in longstanding international collaboration.

Through support from the Green Climate Fund, the Philippines has expanded its disaster forecasting network, trained local emergency responders, and upgraded critical communications infrastructure.

“These investments pay off,” said Clare Nullis, WMO media officer. “This is what adaptation looks like in practice. It’s not abstract—it’s boots on the ground, alerts sent out, boats moved, money in hand before the storm.”

Still, the report cautioned that the gap between climate risk and response remains dangerously wide across much of the South-West Pacific.

Island nations face mounting pressure to decide between staying and relocating, between cultural preservation and physical survival.

The United Nations estimates that 50,000 people across the Pacific face displacement every year due to climate-related threats.

“The sea is not just rising—it is claiming lives, economies, and identities,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres during a 2024 Pacific tour that included a visit to Tonga. “This region is on the frontlines of the climate crisis. It is also on the frontlines of humanity’s moral responsibility.”

With over half the South-West Pacific population living within 500 meters of the coast, the consequences of inaction could be catastrophic.

The WMO called for major investments in mangrove restoration, integrated coastal management, and the inclusion of Indigenous knowledge in adaptation planning.

In the Philippines, local governments are beginning to respond.

Several coastal barangays in Quezon, Leyte, and Bicol have begun piloting “green dike” projects that use vegetation buffers and natural barriers to reduce storm surge impact.

In Eastern Samar, where Typhoon Man-yi made landfall, some municipalities are experimenting with community-based relocation programs that keep cultural practices intact while reducing exposure.

“Building resilience is not just a technical project—it’s a social contract,” said the Climate Change Commission of the Philippines in a statement accompanying the release of the WMO report. “Our adaptation strategies must be rooted in local realities, supported by science, and empowered by the people.”

If you truly love nature, ...

 

Philippines uses mangrove buffer zones to protect its coastlines

A couple plants a mangrove tree in San Jose town, Palawan province, western Philippines, February 14, 2010. (Reuters/Romeo Ranoco)

By

 Mariejo Ramos via Reuters

 -

 June 4, 2025 - 5:08 PM 

MANILA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) — Often battered by typhoons and floods, protecting the coastline is a priority for the sugar-producing Philippines province of Negros Occidental.

But instead of man-made defenses, local leaders have turned to reviving natural barriers with 100-metre-wide strips of vegetation, including coastal mangroves and beach forest species to counter erosion and protect from storms.

Negros Occidental began setting up its “coastal greenbelt” network in 2022, the first of its kind in the Philippines. 

It led to the establishment and protection of more than 1,000 hectares of mangroves, beach forests and wetlands across Negros Occidental, which now serve as living buffers against typhoons, coastal erosion and saltwater intrusion, directly contributing to the province’s disaster risk reduction strategy.

The Negros Occidental coastal greenbelt could become a model for the country’s thousands of miles of coastline, which are threatened by climate change, urban expansion and deforestation. 

“Local government units are already aware of the benefits of coastal greenbelts in terms of saving lives and properties from destruction,” Gloria Estenzo Ramos, vice president of ocean conservation group Oceana Philippines.

More than 90 local government units have since passed their own policies or ordinances designating parts of their areas as greenbelt zones, according to her organisation.

Negros Occidental is also home to the 89,000-hectare Negros Occidental Coastal Wetlands Conservation Area, which hosts several endangered species, such as turtles and dolphins, and was declared as wetland of international importance in 2016.

A 100-metre strip of mangrove can reduce the energy of waves, by up to 66%, a 2012 study by British scientists said.

With 60% of Filipinos living in coastal areas and vulnerable to climate disasters, wetland experts are now pushing for a similar measure nationwide and lawmakers have introduced legislation to establish national coastal greenbelt zones.

The House of Representatives unanimously passed a coastal management bill in 2023 that would require coastal towns and municipalities across the country to create 100-m greenbelt zones similar to Negros Occidental.

But the bill is still waiting approval by the Senate as it has not been considered a priority for debate.

Threats to coastal ecosystems 

Millions of Filipinos benefit from coastal ecosystems like mangroves, seagrasses, mud flats and corals in both rural and urban communities, according to Wetlands International Philippines.

But these coastal protections have suffered for decades.

By the 1990s, Philippines had already lost nearly half of its 450,000 hectares of mangroves. Kisha Muana, policy and advocacy offer of Wetlands International Philippines, said mangroves had been cut down due to “destructive projects along the coasts like reclamation”.

Muana said the bill would help the government monitor where the current greenbelts are and identify areas it could restore.

“There are areas in the Philippines where the stretch of mangroves from the coast to open waters do not reach the 100-metre requirement to block wave energy, so the law can compel territories to supplement them with beach forests,” she said.

Julie Ann Bedrio, the provincial environmental officer of Negros Occidental, said proposed developments in coastal areas such as land reclamation and wind power projects had a bigger impact than individuals cutting back vegetation.

“Cutting mangroves wasn’t really our biggest concern, but the conversion of mangrove areas to fishponds and infrastructure that are being proposed in the mangrove areas without proper planning,” Bedrio told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Aside from development projects, Bedrio said coastlines had also suffered from weak enforcement of coastal laws and pollution from marine litter, including plastics that wrap around mangrove stems and trunks.

Bedrio said establishing a network of greenbelt zones in Negros Occidental also helped encourage dialogue among local leaders, NGOs and environmental experts to monitor, and block if needed, projects that could harm the coastal environment.

First line of defense

As early as 2007, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a conservation group, recognised the importance of greenbelts as a natural solution for some coastal problems, including sea and wind erosion.

In disaster-prone Philippines, the proposed national policy would mandate the designation of coastal greenbelts based on vulnerability to storm surges, tsunamis and other threats, as well as creating a plan to protect coastal biodiversity.

As the Senate sessions resume in June, Oceana’s Ramos said she was confident the bill would be passed soon, with Oceana invited to the technical working group that would look at the current version of the bill.

With local governments using their own limited funding to implement coastal greenbelt policies, Bedrio said it would help them sustain the initiative if the national government supported them with funding or technical assistance.

Still haunted by the thousands killed by the 2013 super typhoon Yolanda, or Haiyan, the environmental officer hopes coastal greenbelts will become a priority for legislators.

“We don’t want another Yolanda to happen again and waste lives of Filipinos living in coastal communities because we failed to protect them by putting up greenbelt zones,” said Bedrio.

—Reporting by Mariejo Ramos. Editing by Jack Graham and Jon Hemming

What is the reason for Bratwurst's popularity in Germany? Does it have something to do with tradition and history?

Volker Eichener

First, some statistical data:

• Germans eat 31 kg of meats and sausages per year (average).
• This includes 2.7 kg of bratwurst, so the share is 8.7 %.
• Among sausages, bratwurst ranks number four after salami (5.5 kg), boiled sausages (4.3 kg), boiled ham (2.7 kg).

So, bratwurst is not as popular as people from other countries may think. And the consommation of bratwurst is shrinking.

Bratwurst is historically documented in Germany for about 800 years. It is a tasty way to make use of the lesser parts of the pig. It is a tasty way to eat considerable amounts of fat (which was important in former times when food was scarce and people were working hard). It is cheap and filling.

Today, bratwurst is a popular snack and also a favourite at BBQs. It is not so much something that we would make for dinner. This includes currywurst which is bratwurst with a tomato-based sauce with curry powder.

Expect suffering if we follow Christ

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

THAT’S how the cookie crumbles. If we choose to follow Christ as consistently as possible, we should expect suffering along the way and at the end. In fact, suffering would be an abiding companion in our life. 

We can draw this conclusion from that gospel episode where Christ asked Peter three times if Peter loved him. (cfr. Jn 21,15-19) After Peter professed his love for Christ in a most fervent way after being asked for the third time, Christ told him what would happen to him.

“Amen, amen I say to thee, when you were younger, you girded yourself, and walked where you wanted. But when you shall be old, you shall stretch forth your hands, and another shall gird you, and lead you where you would rather not go,” Christ told him. “And this he said, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had said this, he said to him: Follow me.” (Jn 21,18-19)

What can immediately come to mind is that to be truly in love with Christ and to follow him as we should, we should not be surprised if suffering would come our way. In fact, we have to expect it and be prepared for it, understanding it as the clearest sign of love, of being with Christ. A love without suffering is not true love.

And this suffering comes in the first place from our own selves, from our own wounded flesh that would always try to go on its own way and law even if it goes against our very own nature and against God’s law. This predicament will always be with us all the way to our death, no matter how determined we are in trying to live a holy and chaste life.

Besides, we have to contend with the many problematic things in this world—a lot of misunderstanding, persecution, injustice, etc. And there’s also the devil who will never take a break from tempting us. He will always cling to us like a leech.

We need to be clear about this truth of our faith. If we really want to truly love, we should be willing to suffer out of love for God and for all souls. We need to realize that the willingness to suffer is the ultimate proof that our love is genuine. Love should not just be a matter of goodwill, of benevolence, of doing some good to others. It has to go all the way to an eagerness to suffer for the others.

This is what Christ has done for us and has commanded us to do. Being both God and man, Christ should be seen by us as the epitome of true love which is the very essence of God that is also meant for us since we are supposed to be God’s image and likeness.

In showing us that love where the willingness to suffer is highlighted, St. Paul made this description of Christ: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

“Rather, he emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Phil 2,5-8)

We have to be willing to suffer the way Christ suffered for all of us. That is what true love is. No wonder that Christ himself said: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (Jn 15,13)

Just breathe

 

Just breathe  “So when are you going to take a break?” I looked her squarely in the eye and replied, “I will, after I finish my commitments.” She shook her head and said, “That was your line the last time we had a reunion. When are you going to learn how to incorporate the word ‘no’ in your vocabulary?” By Fatima Gimenez