Gov'ts urged not to sacrifice funding vs climate change

MANILA, Philippines – Despite the global economic crunch, governments are being urged not to sacrifice funding to combat climate change, including ways to reduce disaster risks to prevent loss of lives and destruction of property reaching billions of dollars each year.

United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) director Salvano Briceño said the UN was ensuring that countries would focus on climate change while addressing other global priorities.

Rafael Jimenez Aybar of the Global Legislators Organization for a Balanced Environment (GLOBE)-Europe and European Union, a network of 1,500 parliamentarians from European Union member-states, said they were pushing for budget support so that developed countries would be able to help poorer nations with programs to address climate change.

During the UNISDR Consultative Meeting with Parliamentarians on “Making Disaster Risk Reduction A Tool For Climate Change Adaptation,” it was stated that the issue had remained “marginalized” even if “it represents a vast amount of preventive savings in lives and livelihoods in a time of increasing disaster risks” brought about by climate change.

For this reason, lawmakers from different countries who participated in the meeting agreed to a “Manila Call for Action on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA),” calling on every nation to make DRR the first line of defense in responding to the impacts of climate change.

Participants said there must be a comprehensive strategy to respond to disasters that had become more frequent and devastating because of climate change.

Sen. Loren Legarda, the meeting’s co-convenor, said studies had shown that every dollar spent for DRR could save $7 in reconstruction.

She said China had allotted $3 billion for its flood control system in 20 years and had estimated to save $20 billion in reconstruction had the flooding problems not been addressed.

Legarda said despite the global meltdown, investing in programs and projects for climate change would still be a “cost efficient method” because of the adverse effects it could bring to humanity if the international community would not implement measures to address it.

In the Philippines, Legarda said the national budget, particularly that of the Department of Public Works and Highways, has not integrated disaster risk management in building infrastructures and that the agency was only focused on “bridges and highways.”

Seventy percent of total disasters worldwide are climate-related, making the integration of DRR into climate change adaptation agenda more essential, the lawmakers said.