1. Forum and Workshop on Renewable Energy
Responding to the
Challenges of Climate Change
Waterfront Hotel, Lahug, Cebu City
March 6, 2009
Dr. Giovanni Tapang
Philippine Climate Watch Alliance

2. Walkthrough
Marginal Communities and climate change
●
Philippine response to climate change
●
Updates on international climate initiatives
●

3. Climate change
Accelerated warming of surface due to human-related

releases of greenhouses gases
Projections of Surface Temperature Change

5. Adverse Impacts
Agriculture
●
Productivity in tropics/subtropics; food shortage
●
Water Resources
●
Water availability + quality; floods and droughts;
●
hydropower sources
People's Health
●
Vector and water borne disease, heat stress,
●
nutrition, EWE deaths
Coastal Areas and Fisheries
●
Species and Natural Areas
●
Biodiversity loss
●
Forest cover loss
●
Human Displacement
●

7. Hurricanes/Typhoons
(Category 4/5)
Source: Science Magazine, Sep 16, 2005

8. Developing countries are most
vulnerable 100%
Impacts are worse 80%

Percentage affected
LDC
60%
Low capacity to adapt
Dev'ing
− CIT
40%
Dev'ed
Lack of financial,
−
20%
institutional and
technological capacity and 0%
access to knowledge 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
Impact disproportionately

upon the poorest countries and the poorest
persons within countries
Exacerbating inequities in health status and access to adequate
−
food, clean water and other resources.

9. The poor face greatest challenges
from climate change
4,000
2 billion people in
Number affected (Millions)
3,000

Dev'ed
developing countries CIT
2,000
Dev'ing
LDC
affected by climate 1,000
related disaster in -
the 1990s. 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
The rate has

doubled this decade.

10. Asymmetric responsibility and
vulnerability
Inverse relationship between

climate change vulnerability
and responsibility
Primary emitter countries must

change their production
activities and consumption of
energy and seek sustainable
solutions.
Basic human needs, economic

and social development need
adequate energy and
infrastructure.

11. Coastal systems and low-lying areas (IPCC-AR4, 2007)
All coastal ecosystems are vulnerable
●
to climate change and sea level rise
Increases in sea surface temperature of
●
about 1 to 3°C - more frequent coral
bleaching events and widespread mortality
Coastal wetlands including salt
●
marshes and mangroves are projected
to be negatively affected by sea-level
rise
Many millions more people are projected to
●
be flooded every year due to sea-level rise
by the 2080s in densely-populated and low-
Fisherfolk
lying areas, such as the mega-deltas of Asia ●
and Africa and small islands.
●Coastal communities
●Small islands

12. Industry, Settlement and Society (IPCC-AR4, 2007)
The most vulnerable
●
industries, settlements
and societies are generally
those in coastal and river
flood plains, in areas prone
to extreme weather events,
especially where rapid
urbanization is occurring. Urban poor
●
communities
Poor communities can be
●
especially vulnerable, in
particular those
concentrated in high-risk
areas.

13. People's Health (IPCC-AR4, 2007)
Projected climate change-related exposures are
●
likely to affect the health status of millions of
people, particularly those with low adaptive
capacity, through:
increases in malnutrition and consequent disorders, with
●
implications for child growth and development;
increased deaths, disease and injury due to heat waves,
●
floods, storms, fires and droughts;
the increased burden of diarrhoeal disease; altered
●
spatial distribution of some infectious disease vectors.
risk of dengue increases to 3.5 billion people, by 2085,
●
worldwide

14. Regional: Small Islands (IPCC-AR4, 2007)
Small islands are especially vulnerable to
●
the effects of climate change, sea level rise
and extreme events:
Deterioration in coastal conditions (erosion of
●
beaches and coral bleaching), is expected to
affect fisheries, tourism, etc
Storm surge, coastal inundation, erosion, etc.
●
to be exacerbated by sea-level rise
Reduced water resources in many small
●
islands, by mid-century (insufficient to meet
demand during low rainfall periods)

15. Vulnerability of the Philippines to Climate Change
Strong signals: start of climate change
process already evident in the country
Increasing trends in
●
temperature, sea level rise,
etc, are consistent with the
global trends.
ANNUAL MEAN TEMPERATURE ANOMALIES IN THE
PHILIPPINES
Recent extreme events on
● 2.5
2.0
typhoons, floods, drought,
TEM PERATURE ANOM ALY
1.5 y = 0.0143x - 0.206
1.0
0.5
flash floods, landslides 0.0
-0.5
(Albay, South- ern Leyte, -1.0
-1.5
-2.0
Ormoc, etc) -2.5
-3.0
61 63 65 67 69 71 73 75 77 79 81 83 85 87 89 91 93 95 97 99
YEAR
Source: CAB/PAGASA
From Dr. Amadore's Slides

16. Vulnerability of the Philippines to Climate Change
Sectors/Systems
●
• Disastrous extreme
most vulnerable to
weather events (strong climate change
typhoons, heavy - Agriculture and food
precipitations, security
droughts, etc) are
- Water resources
occurring more often
- Coastal and marine
• Sea level rise will
resources
adversely affect many
- Health and human
coastal communities
settlements
From Dr. Amadore's Slides

17. Vulnerability of the Philippines to Climate Change
Agriculture and food
•
Percent of Typhoon damage to GDP & Agric.
security are
adversely affected by
extreme weather
events
Increases in water-
●
borne diseases
(dengue fever,
malaria, cholera) -
associated with
extremes of rainfall
(droughts and
floods)
From Dr. Amadore's Slides

18. Effect of Sea Warming on Coastal (Marine) Resources
• The diversity of corals
could be affected with the
branching corals (e.g., staghorn coral)
decreasing or becoming locally extinct
and the massive corals (e.g., brain
corals) increasing (WGII TAR, 2001)
• Massive coral bleaching
in various reefs through-
out the Philippines
during the severe 1997-
98 ENSO episode (Arceo, H.O.
et al., 2001)
• Fish kills and high
mortality of cultured
giant clams, severe red
tide outbreaks after
strong El Niño periods.
The worst incidence of red tide in Manila
Bay occurred in 1992, another El Niño
period.
From Dr. Amadore's Slides

19. Philippines’ Response to Address Climate
Change
Created the Inter-Agency Committee on Climate Change

(IACCC) in May 1991
Signed the UNFCCC on June 1992 and ratified it on

August 2, 1994
Signed the Kyoto Protocol on April 15, 1998 and ratified it on

November 20, 2003
Designated the DENR as the National Authority for CDM on

June 25, 2004 by virtue of Executive Order No. 320
Issued DENR Adm. Order 2005-17 last August 2005 on the

Implementing Rules and Regulations Governing E.O. 320
Presidential Administrative Order No. 171 Signed by 20

February 2007, Presidential Task Force on Climate Change
In the Senate, proposals for a Climate Change Commission

(by the ad-hoc Committee on Climate Change)

20. The Inter-Agency Committee on Climate Change
(IACCC)
 Created by virtue of Presidential A.O. 220 on May 8, 1991
 Composed of government agencies and NGO representatives
 Chaired by the Secretary of the DENR, and co-chaired by the Secretary
of the DOST
 EMB – acts as IACCC Secretariat
Functions of the IACCC
 Coordinate, develop, and monitor implementation of various climate
change related activities.
 Coordinate representation(s) and formulated the Philippine position(s)
to international negotiations, conferences, and meetings on climate
change
 Formulate and recommend climate change related policies and actions
 Serve as technical committee for the review and evaluation of project
proposals for GEF funding.

21. Registered Projects by Host Party
1. 360: India
2. 289: China
3. 146: Brazil
4. 107: Mexico
5. 33: Malaysia
6. 26: Chile
7. 20: RP
1.67% of
TOTAL: 1,197

22. Multiple and fragmented response
Multiple and fragmented response
●
IACCC
●
PTFCC
●
CCC
●
Implementing CDM projects
●
Adaptation measures
●
Mitigation measures
●
Renewables (RE Bill)
●
Conservation
●
Conflicting policies
●

23. Grand mega-sale of energy resources
Expected foreign investments energy
●
P295 billion in investments
●
P177 billion potential investment in the
●
renewable energy sector for 2004-2013
EPIRA
●
IPPs
●
SPUG
●
SPEX in Malampaya
●
45 % Shell, 45 % ChevronTexaco
●
10% to be sold
●
Tanon strait
●
BNPP Revival?
●

24. Copenhagen 2009 and beyond

25. UNFCCC @ Poznan
These events drew over 9250 participants,
●
including almost 4000 government officials,
4500 representatives of UN bodies and
agencies, intergovernmental organizations
and nongovernmental organizations, and
more than 800 accredited members of the
media. These included around 1,500
industry or corporate lobbyists

26. Key Issues in COP 15 (Copenhagen)
Key Issue People’s Agenda Northern Elite Agenda
Not without binding
Drastic reductions in GHG
Mitigation
commitments on the part of
emissions, particularly from
“large developing countries”
advanced industrialized
countries
Rich countries must pay their Voluntary contributions
Adaptation/
ecological debt to the poor according to aid framework
Financing
majority of the world, esp. most (donor-recipient relationship);
vulnerable communities accdg. greater reliance on private
to principle of PPP, restorative investments (carbon markets)
justice
Shift to low-carbon economies Encourage private sector
Technology
with unhampered technology investment in “clean
transfer to developing countries technologies” (with IPR
protection) + trade &
investment liberalization in EGS
(c/o WTO)
People’s sovereignty & Industrial tree plantations as
Deforestation
stewardship over natural carbon offsets for carbon
resources trading; biofuels

27. Towards Copenhagen
National Grassroots Conference
●
Manila
●
April 2009
●
Organized by PCWA
●
Other activities (class suit?)
●
Asian Grassroots Conference
●
Bangkok
●
September 2009
●
COP+15
●
Copenhagen
●
Replacement to Kyoto?
●
December 2009
●