By: Kendrick Co
Date Posted: September 14, 2015

It is becoming more and more apparent that climate change is inevitable, and the Philippines would be severely affected by the negative events associated, such as increase intensity of typhoons, increase in temperature, and drastic changes in local rainfall patterns. As such, scientific findings are becoming more vital for decision and policy makers for effective adaptation strategies. The problem is, however, that there exists a gap between the scientific and policy-making community. This workshop, held last August 26, 2015 at the Science Garden by PAGASA, aims to bridge this gap and foster effective resilience and adaptation policies. The OML Center participated in the workshop along with representatives from several government and academic institutions.

A panel session was held to showcase the different approaches currently being used to adapt to climate change. Speakers from PAGASA, UP, and the ADB (Under the PhilCCAP project) presented how they used information from climate models to determine the specific sectors that would be most affected by climate change and how they repackaged this information into a more understandable climate information report. The culminating activity is a report by the various agencies present on their environmental information/service needs and what they can provide.

Translation of these science-based outputs into a more understandable climate information plays an integral part in attaining a sustainable and climate-resilient country. PAGASA remains committed to be involved in developing a community of practice to provide climate change information in a cost-effective and sustainable manner through capacity building.

The OML Center and PAGASA is conducting a collaborative project entitled “Climate Change Projections in the Philippines”. For more details about the project, click here: http://www.omlopezcenter.org/banner-projects