Climate Change Vulnerability: Philippines ranks 3rd

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Helen Flores (The Philippine Star) - March 21, 2018 - 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is ranked third among the four countries in the world most vulnerable to climate change, a recent survey by HSBC showed.

India topped the list, followed by Pakistan. Bangladesh came in fourth. 

The study noted that in India, climate change could cut agricultural incomes, particularly in unirrigated areas that would be hit hardest by rising temperatures and declines in rainfall.

Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines are susceptible to extreme weather events, such as storms and flooding.

Pakistan was ranked by HSBC among nations least equipped to respond to climate risks.

The five countries least vulnerable to climate change risk are Finland, Sweden, Norway, Estonia and New Zealand.

In its last ranking in 2016, HSBC only assessed G20 countries for vulnerability to climate risk.

The Climate Change Commission recently announced the release of about P200 million in grants to four local government units in the country to strengthen their resiliency to the negative impact of climate change. 

The People’s Survival Fund (PSF) Board entered into partnerships with the local governments of Del Carmen, Siargao Island, Surigao del Norte; Lanuza, Surigao del Sur; Gerona, Tarlac; and San Francisco, Camotes Island, Cebu. 

Chaired by the Department of Finance, the PSF was established in 2012 through Republic Act No. 10174 to support the climate adaptation action plans of local governments.

In March last year, President Duterte signed the landmark Paris Agreement on Climate Change that calls for the reduction of carbon emissions, which have been linked to the occurrence of natural disasters and extreme weather conditions.

In 2015, the Philippine government submitted to the United Nations the country’s commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

The country committed to reduce its carbon emissions by 70 percent by 2030. 

The carbon dioxide reductions will come from the sectors of energy, transport, waste, forestry and industry.

In this year’s rankings, HSBC assessed 67 developed, emerging and frontier markets on vulnerability to the physical impacts of climate change, sensitivity to extreme weather events, exposure to energy transition risks and ability to respond to climate change.

The 67 nations represent almost a third of the world’s nation states, 80 percent of the global population and 94 percent of global gross domestic product.

HSBC averaged the scores in each area for the countries in order to reach the overall ranking. Some countries were highly vulnerable in some areas but less so in others.

South and Southeast Asian countries accounted for half of the 10 most vulnerable countries. Oman, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Mexico, Kenya and South Africa are also in this group.

Read more at https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2018/03/21/1798866/climate-change-vulnerability-philippines-ranks-3rd#sbSZZVrIkkiIM0S2.99

Our children’s mother earth

WED, AUGUST 23, 2017 BY THE MINDANAO DAILY MIRROR LEAVE A COMMENT

By KLAUS DÖRING

Yes, it’s again the topic, we should really think about. Also here in the Philippines. Ok, here’s anew string of examples, my dear readers. But, don’t expect good news.

Greenland, the great island is being called already the Land of Ice being on fire. Why? A recent report says the Arctic may be ice-free by 2040. The Antarctic is also melting, albeit far slower, and in a less regular pattern.

The Arctic is melting much faster than expected, and could even be ice-free in summer by the late 2030’s, a report from the Arctic Council’s Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program suggests. Previous studies had forecast an ice-free North Pole in summer by mid-century. Wow.

While the outlook is bleak for the Arctic, there is a silver lining for the Antarctic: As I said before, the ice is melting at a slower rate than previously thought. Although glacier flow has increased since the 1990’s, scientists from University of Leeds have found the melting rate to be only around a third of what was previously projected. A section of a glacier in Greenland is seen from NASA’s Operation IceBridge research aircraft along the Upper Baffin Bay coast on March 27, 2017.

Operation IceBridge studies the processes that link the polar regions with the Earth’s climate system. Rapidly changing polar ice means researchers need to use highly sophisticated airborne technology to measure annual changes in thickness and movement – onboard a retrofitted 1966 Lock-heed P-3 aircraft.

But the Antarctic is still melting. And a rapidly advancing crack in its fourth-largest ice shelf could soon see one of the largest icebergs ever recorded in human history break off into the sea. Scientists agree that global warming causes both the ice in the North and the South Pole to melt. Air temperatures are climbing, and so are water temperatures. This makes the ice melt faster. The period of winter where the water is actually cold enough to freeze is getting shorter, which means ice floes are getting smaller.

Greenland, home to the world’s largest permanent ice sheet outside Antarctica, is being swept by wildfires. Yes, the land of ice is on fire. A really breath away taking situation. Scientists say global warming and increased plant cover are likely factors. Since late July, wild-fires have raged across an ever-larger area of the landmass – and with greater intensity – than ever before observed.

Honestly folks, it really scares me although experts say it is too early to draw firm conclusions linking the fire to climate change be-cause no long-term data is available to put the blaze in context. However, unusually warm and dry conditions this year could have been a factor.

Let’s face this: “It’s unprecedented in the short 18-year observational record,” Jason Box, a climate scientist at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, said in an interview with German TV yesterday. “We also know that temperatures in Greenland are probably higher [than they have been over] the last 800 years.” Wow again!

Although the origin of the blaze is unclear – with lightening and a stray cigarette as possible suspects – what is clear is how it has been spreading across remote areas of grassland and low shrub. Greenland’s is indeed getting greener and greener. It conjures images of white, frozen expanses. But Box says global warming means it’s getting greener all the time. “There’s a shorter snow-cover season, and that allows the plant life to expand,” he explained.

The Arctic is heating up around twice as fast as the global average. At the same time, rainfall around the world is also increasing – and that trend as well is more present in the Artic. “More rain is a widespread symptom of climate change,” Box said. “You get more precipitation – and where you get the biggest increase is in the Arctic.”

For Greenland, warmer, wetter conditions mean more vegetation – which, seemingly paradoxically, could be a factor for the fire. And my next question is: what will be the impact of these fires on the ice sheet and surrounding areas?

Fact is: Greenland’s ice sheets melt, that contri-butes to sea level rise. And if we add North- and South Pole and their vanishing ice and snow? Yes, also the Philippines are in danger. Not this year or next year. But … !

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Wake up to the climate crisis!

MON, JUNE 5, 2017 BY THE MINDANAO DAILY MIRROR LEAVE A COMMENT

IN MY OPINIONKlaus Doring

This is how protesters gathered outside the White House Thursday, June 1. Indeed, the world is crying and not laughing.

What was agreed in Paris? Climate change, or global warming, refers to the damaging effect of gases, or emissions, released from industry and agriculture on the atmosphere.

The Paris accord is meant to limit the global rise in temperature attributed to emissions. Countries agreed to:

Keep global temperatures “well below” the level of 2 C (3.6 F) above pre-industrial times and “endeavor to limit” them even more, to 1.5 C.

Limit the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by human activity to the same levels that trees, soil and oceans can absorb naturally, beginning at some point between 2050 and 2100.

Review each country’s contribution to cutting emissions every five years so they scale up to the challenge.

Enable rich countries to help poorer nations by providing “climate finance” to adapt to climate change and switch to renewable energy. But – without the U.S.!

There has been widespread international condemnation of President Trump’s announce-ment that the US is withdrawing from the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

UN chief Antonio Guterres’s spokesman called it “a major disappointment” while the European Union said it was “a sad day for the world”. However, senior Republicans and the US coal industry backed the move. Mr. Trump said the accord “punished” the US and would cost millions of American jobs. In an address at the White House, he said he was prepared to negotiate a new agreement or re-enter the accord on improved terms.

“I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris,” he said.

Only Syria and Nicaragua did not sign up to the deal.

Let’s face it, there will be some effects of the US pullout from Paris climate deal. First of all, believe me, the US withdrawal will hurt the deal and the world. There’s no doubt that President Trump’s withdrawal will make it more difficult for the world to reach the goals that it set for itself in the Paris agreement – keeping global temperature rises well under 2 C. The US contributes about 15% of global emissions of carbon, but it is also a significant source of finance and technology for developing countries in their efforts to fight rising temperatures.

Several commentators worldwide voiced out, that there’s also a question of moral leader-ship, which the US will be giving up, which may have consequences for other diplomatic efforts. Michael Brune, from US environmentalists, the Sierra Club, said the expected withdrawal was a “historic mistake which our grandchildren will look back on with stunned dismay at how a world leader could be so divorced from reality and morality”.

The key relationship that brokered the Paris agreement was between the US and China. President Obama and President Xi Jinping were able to find enough common ground to build a so-called “coalition of high ambition” with small island states and the EU. China has rapidly re-affirmed its commitment to the Paris accord and will issue a statement with the EU tomorrow pledging more greater co-operation to cut carbon.

“No one should be left behind, but the EU and China have decided to move forward,” said EU climate commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete. I strongly agree!

Mother Earth and your environment – quo vadis?

Global environment voices

FRI, MAY 12, 2017 BY THE MINDANAO DAILY MIRROR LEAVE A COMMENT

IN MY OPINIONKlaus Doring

If I meet people fighting for our clean environment, you might find me at their site. Activists have started a eight-day push to get individuals and institutions to divest from oil, gas and coal corporations. Investing in the fossil fuel industry equals pumping money into climate change, they say.

Fossil fuels seem to be losing their unquestioned position as the world’s primary source of energy, particularly after the Paris climate agreement. Even so, governments and private investors continue to sup-port fossil fuel businesses worldwide.

The Global Divestment Mobilization (May 5 to 13, 2017) will draw together thousands of people from across 39 countries on six continents to push forward divestment from fossil fuels, in favor of renewable energy. In other words, to convince investors to withdraw their financial support fossil fuel companies – and in doing so, protect the climate.

Environmental activists and concerned individuals ask for an immediate freeze of any new investment in coal, oil or gas companies. The movement has spread across the world over the past five years. It’s based on the argument that investing in fossil energies fuels the climate crisis.

As a project of the environmental nonprofit organization 350.org, the Global Divestment Mobilization started in United States universities in 2012. But the movement has now reached global dimensions. “Everything is growing very rapidly,” Melanie Mattauch, Europe communications coordinator told international media.

The network includes now countries from Asia, Latin America and Africa. The development of the movement in Brazil, for instance, has been particularly exciting for Mattauch. “There, many bishops and Catholic groups are engaged,” she said. “They want the Vatican to react as a great moral authority – and a great investor.”

And the movement has also been very successful, Mattauch said, pointing to its growth. More than 700 public institutions worldwide have already committed to divest, including educational institutions, philanthropic foundations and governments. Just last week, the German city of Göttingen has become the fourth German city withdrawing investment in coal, oil and gas companies. As German citizen I am happy to learn about it.

Faith-based organizations represent around 20 percent of the total divestment reached yet.

“Christians in the Church have a particular moral and religious obligation to speak out on climate change,” a spokesperson from the Christian Climate Action group told German media. She didn’t want to be named, out of professional reasons.

This is indeed all about raising awareness and making pressure.

Some accuse fossil fuel companies of only surviving thanks to governmental subsidies. Oil Change International issued a 2015 report that G20 governments provided more than $400 billion (360 billion Euro) per year to fossil fuel production, including some of the world’s most carbon-intensive and polluting ones. Let’s face it: unless governments stop propping up fossil fuel companies, divestment will be limited, even with clean energy becoming ever cheaper.

Climate Change: 2016 Likely to be Warmest Year Yet

Climate change: Data shows 2016 likely to be warmest year yet - also for the Philippines.

By Matt McGrathEnvironment correspondent

• 18 January 2017
 
• From the sectionScience & Environment
 
• 464comments

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Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

Image captionRecord warm temperatures were seen all over the world in 2016, including the Arctic

Temperature data for 2016 shows it is likely to have edged ahead of 2015 as the world's warmest year.

Data from Nasa and the UK Met Office shows temperatures were about 0.07 degrees Celsius above the 2015 mark.

Although the Met Office increase was within the margin of error, Nasa says that 2016 was the third year in a row to break the record.

The El Niño weather phenomenon played a role, say scientists, but the main factor was human emissions of CO2.

The latest conclusions won't come as a much of a shock to observers, as the likely outcome was trailed heavily towards the end of last year.

Animation: Climate change explained in six graphics

What is climate change?

So warm was the early part of 2016 - influenced by a powerful El Niño - that some leading climate scientists were predicting as early as May that a new record was likely.

During an El Niño, a band of unusually warm ocean water develops in parts of the Pacific. The phenomenon affects the climate globally, disrupting weather patterns.

Media captionHow global temperature has changed

According to Nasa figures, 2016 is now the warmest year in a record that dates back to 1880.

"2015 has been the warmest year on record up until now, so 2016 has just beaten that and and it's beaten that by about 0.1- 0.12 of a degree Celsius, which doesn't seem like a lot, but in terms of the year to year variations it's actually huge," Dr Gavin Schmidt from Nasa told BBC News.

"This is a very clear record that we're seeing. It is driven mainly by changes in the tropical Pacific where we had an El Niño event that produced a lot of warmth. But we've also seen long term trends in warming mostly due to the increasing greenhouse gases."

Image copyrightNOAA

Image captionMany parts of the world had their warmest recorded year in 2016

Another factor that has affected temperatures in 2016 is the unusual warmth in the Arctic.

The sea-ice covering the Arctic reached its second lowest level (in terms of extent) in September 2016. The sea-ice grows in autumn and winter and shrinks each spring and summer.

While the sea-ice extent last year didn't break the record, the mercury stayed high and the smaller amount of ice now present in the region is at unprecedented levels for the time of year.

A number of meteorological agencies from around the world have released their figures today. They all suggest that warming in 2016 was a record that had an important contribution from El Niño.

The Met Office says it contributed about 0.2C to the annual average for 2016. However, researchers believe that while this is substantial, it is not the whole story.

"We understand the contribution El Niño makes fairly well and we've seen it many times," said Prof Ellie Highwood from the University of Reading.

"But even if you take that contribution away, we would expect 2015 and 2016 to still be the warmest years we've seen, so a majority of it is coming from global warming and the greenhouse effect."

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), which pulls together temperature data from a number of sources, agrees that 2016 broke the record by 0.07C.

Not all of the reports on temperature data in 2016 are clear that the warmest-year record has been broken.

Century dominated by records

The Met Office says that 2016 was 0.77 above the long term rate, but with a plus or minus error margin of 0.1C, meaning that last year was at the very least, one of the two warmest years on record.

"The final figures confirm that 2016 was yet another extremely warm year," said Peter Stott from the Met Office.

"The temperature for last year was very close to the year before, temperatures for 2016 exceeding those for 2015 by a small margin."

Regardless of the small margins, when the new data on 2016 is included, 15 of the warmest 16 years on record have now occurred since 2001.

According to Noaa (the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), the only year from the 20th Century to break into the top 16 is 1998, and which ranks seventh warmest.

This prolonged period of warming was having significant impacts around the world.

Image copyrightWMO

Image captionThe Arctic region exceeded the long term average by up to 6C through most of 2016

"We have also broken sea ice minimum records in the Arctic and Antarctic," said Petteri Taalas from the WMO.

"The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the global average. The persistent loss of sea-ice is driving weather, climate and ocean circulation patterns in other parts of the world. We also have to pay attention to the potential release of methane from melting permafrost," he said.

Of great concern to scientists and politicians is the fact that the newly published temperature data shows the Earth is once again more than one degree warmer than pre-industrial times, and edging closer to the threshold of 1.5C set under the Paris climate pact.

With the Trump administration about to take office in the US, there are concerns that political support for climate action might fade. This would be a big mistake according to scientists.

"Climate change is one of the great challenges of the 21st Century and shows no signs of slowing down," said Prof Mark Maslin, from University College London.

"The decarbonisation of the global economy is the ultimate goal to prevent the worst effects of climate change. The hottest year on record is such a clear warning siren that even President-elect Trump cannot ignore it."

Researchers say that 2017 is unlikely to break the warming record but will be in the top five hottest years.

Follow Matt on Twitter and on Facebook

Climate change and its turning point?

TUE, SEPTEMBER 6, 2016 BY THE MINDANAO DAILY MIRROR LEAVE A COMMENT

IN MY OPINIONKlaus Doring

The United States and China have formally joined the global climate change agreement reached in Paris last year. The decisions mark a major step towards the pact’s eventual implementation. Will this be another step in the right direction of the turning point?

At a ceremony on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in China on yesterday Saturday (I am writing this piece on Sunday, September 4, 2016!), US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered documents to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon entering their countries into the pact.

China’s National People’s Congress adopted “the proposal to review and ratify the Paris Agreement,” according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. Xi called the agreement a milestone that marked the “emergence of a global government system” for climate change.

The ceremony took place shortly after Obama arrived in Hangzhou for the annual G-20 summit. Speaking in the presence of the Chinese president and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Obama said: “Just as I believe the Paris agreement will ultimately prove to be a turning point for our planet, I believe that history will judge today’s efforts as pivotal.”

He said the United States was committed to being a global leader in the fight against climate change: “This is not a fight that any one country, no matter how powerful, can take alone.” He said of the Paris agreement: “Some day we may see this as the moment that we finally decided to save our planet.”

Honestly, it took already very very long before reaching this point.

China, the world’s most populous country, with 1.38 billion people, is the world’s largest emitter of green-house gases. The United States, with just 324 million people, is number two. The two countries account for about 20 percent and 18 percent, respectively, of global warming emissions. Check out this: Russia accounts for 7.5 percent, while India pumps out 4.1 percent.

Since it is an executive agreement, rather than a treaty, Obama can sign it without needing a vote from Congress, which would, in all likelihood, reject it. In Paris, the countries agreed to a binding global compact for each country to decide how best to slash their own greenhouse emissions with the aim of keeping global temperature increases to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) relative to the pre-industrial revolution.

And this is today’s reality:  experts have said the pace of global warming is already threatening to exceed the temperature target. The UN weather agency said 2016 is on pace to become the warmest since record-keeping began, breaking the previous record set last year. I guess, we can all feel it also here in the Philippines.

The Paris agreement set ambitious goals for capping global warming and funneling trillions of dollars to poor countries facing an onslaught of climate damage. But, how future will be looking like…?

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Email: doringklaus@ gmail.com or follow me in Facebook or Twitter or visitwww.germanexpatinthe philippines.blogspot.com or www.klausdoringsclassicalmusic .blogspot.com .

Summer Beach Sports Fest Highlights Drive to Mitigate Climate Change Impact

 

 

NABUNTURAN, Compostela Valley (May 11) -- The province’s Summer Beach Sports Festival this year, will center on the contribution of its tourism program to the campaign to mitigate the future impact of climate change on the eco-tourism resources of Compostela Valley.

 

The province’s beach sports festival is held all weekends of May along the coasts of Mabini and Pantukan at the northern edge of ecologically fragile Davao gulf, a key biodiversity area (KBA) in the Philippines listed as one of the world’s 34 biodiversity hotspots.

 

In 2014, the MPLS Protected Area  Management Board conducted a coral reef assessment at the site. Based on the assessment, 53.40% of the seascape’s live coral cover percentage is in good condition. It also identified 46 scleractinian coral genera.  Only 110 genera of scleractinian coral have been identified worldwide, 72 of which are found in the Philippines.

 

Christine Dompor, provincial tourism officer, explained the annual summer beach sports festival was conceptualized in 2008 as a tourism promotion campaign and a mechanism to raise awareness on protecting, preserving, and conserving the endangered marine ecosystem of the gulf particularly within the 3,433-hectare Mabini Protected Landscape and Seascape (MPLS).

 

Dompor said the twin objectives may not be enough now because of climate change. In 2014, she noted, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its fifth Assessment Report that predicted that oceans would rise more than three feet by 2100, a little less than 90 years from now.

 

“What would happen then to our coastal areas … to our ecotourism industry if the waters of Davao gulf rise? We will never know if this, in fact, will happen but it is better to be prepared. It is better to contribute to minimizing the impacts of climate change,” the provincial tourism officer said.

 

She thanked the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office of Maco and MPLS Protected Area Supervisor Julie Español for the 150 mangrove seedlings and the Month of the Ocean tarpaulin that will be displayed on different festival sites.

 

The tourism officer said on May 21, a Saturday, students, soldiers from the 10^th Infantry Division of the province, beach resorts owners and workers, and coastal villagers among others will dozumba at Omandac Beach View Resort in Brgy. Pindasan, Mabini at 5:00 a.m. then proceed to nearby Sitio Casilac in Brgy. San Antonio for the mangrove planting at 6:30 a.m. to be followed by a clean-up of the coastal area. 

 

Mangrove planting is a regular activity of the beach festival to augment the existing mangrove forests of the seascape.

 

Mabini, approximately 70 kilometers away from Davao City, is located in the southeastern section of the province of Compostela Valley.  The Protected Landscape and Seascape includes Kopiat island and Lunod island.

 

Kopiat island, host of the multi-million peso international standard resort Lubi Plantation of Lapanday Properties Inc., is the staging point of the region-wide almost a kilometer Kopiat swimming challenge. This year’s challenge finishes at Omandac Beach View Resort and falls on Sunday morning of May 22.

 

All of the five marine turtle species in the Philippines found in Davao Gulf are the Hawksbill, Oliver Ridley, Green Sea, Loggerhead, and the Leatherback turtles. Two – the hawksbill and the leatherback turtles – lay their eggs on the coasts of  Kopiat island.

 

The Philippine Environmental Governance Project 2 (EcoGov),   a technical assistance project in the Philippines funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), identified Davao Gulf as a feeding ground to 11 species of cetaceans including sperm whales, killer whales, and bottle-nose dolphins.

 

A number of these species regularly swims the channels between the islands and mainland Mabini to feed on the seascape’s seagrasses, rich planktons and krill. But sightings of these endangered marine mammals have become rare in the last years.

 

Beach sports line-up

 

The lined-up beach sports of the festival are: beach volleyball for male and Black Light Party on May 14 and beach volleyball for female on May 15 at Beach View Resort; fire dance, reggae band competitions, and zumba also at Beach View on May 21;

 

Mangrove planting and coastal clean-up at Sitio Casilac in Brgy. San Antonio, Mabini also on May 21; Cheer dance competition, Kopiat Swimming Challenge from Kopiat Island to Beach View Resort, and kite flying in Pantukan on May 22; 

 

On May 28, Water volleyball and Amazing Beach Race at Welborn Beach Resort, Body Painting at Seaworld Oasis, Hip Hop Grand Prix at Jeinos Beach Resort all in Pantukan;  and Frisbee competition at Magnaga Waters Beach Resort. (jpa/pgo-tss/ids)

 

 

 

Photo Caption:

 

Flying, sexy but fierce. Beach volley belles perfectly described last Sunday's Beachfest event. The event is part of the Summer Beachfest Event sponsored by the Provincial Tourism Office of Comval. Other fun activities  are scheduled all weekends of May.(Photo Credits: Comval Tourism/ids comval)