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The Philippines in the Climate Change Arena
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Abstract
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In Chapter 11, Joy Galvez helps us appreciate the impacts of climate change - and their implications for policy making - in much smaller and arguably even more vulnerable developing country of East Asia: the Philippines. Her summary of many key issues and concerns in the Philippines highlight some possible differences in perceived interests and strategies of the poorer countries in East Asia. As Galvez points out, the Philippines is a hot-spot for natural hazards. As such, it is particularly vulnerable to climate change, and she describes in some detail many of those vulnerabilities first introduced in Chapter 2. The sectors in the Philippines projected to suffer the most from climate change-related impacts are water resources, agriculture, coastal resources, and human health. Galvez reminds us that these impacts worsen conditions in an already very underdeveloped country, and they will cause further suffering among a population that is already largely destitute.
Galvez shows how government and private actors have worked together to assess the Philippines contributions to global warming and the implications of climate change for the country. At the international level, the Philippines was one of the first countries to discuss and develop positions on climate change. It aligned itself with other developing countries. At the national level, the government developed an interagency group, composed of national agencies, academic institutions and civil society actors, that has contributed to scientific research related to climate change vulnerability of smaller countries like the Philippines, as well as to the strong legal position of developing countries in relation to the responsibilities and commitments of developed countries. But Galvez believes that these actions have been inadequate. Without a greater response from the national government, international organizations and the Filipino people, she says, the Philippines will suffer markedly from the projected impacts of climate change. Her chapter shows that if the Philippines is to cope with this problem, the government must develop programs for massive information campaigns, educating the populace about the issue and how they contribute to it; review existing national and local environmental laws based on their relationship and congruence with international environmental laws, particularly on biodiversity conservation and climate change; and impose stiffer penalties on violators of existing environmental laws (e.g., strengthening the country's logging ban and clean air act) so as to curtail abuse and wanton environmental destruction. Having said this, the necessary resources to actualize Galvez's recommendations are far too limited. Implementation of these strategies will require substantial additional assistance from the world's developed countries.