BATAC CITY – The Climate Change Commission (CCC) has offered assistance to local government units (LGUs) in Ilocos Norte in crafting their Local Climate Change Adaptation Plan (LCCAP) to address the worsening and adverse effects of climate change.
In his message during the 3rd National Panel of Technical Experts forum held at the Mariano Marcos State University Teatro Ilocandia in this city on Tuesday (April 4, 2018), CCC secretary and vice chairperson Emmanuel De Guzman challenged local governments to immediately draft their LCCAP and implement measures that build on and enhance their communities’ resilience to climate change.
LCCAP is a document crafted and designed by LGUs regarding climate change adaptation plans in their locality as defined under Republic Act 9729 or the Climate Change Act of 2009.
The law requires that all LGUs shall be the frontline agencies in the formulation, planning and implementation of climate change action plans in their respective areas, consistent with the provisions of the Local Government Code and the National Climate Change Action Plan.
De Guzman said his call should be treated with urgency amid looming predictions by many Filipino scientists that major climate change impacts would be felt in the country in the near future.
“With businesses as usual coupled with the inaction of various sectors, scientists have foreseen major climate catastrophes that could happen in the country,” he said.
He said 98 percent of coral reefs will surely die by 2050 and extinction will happen by the end of the century. It is also predicted that there would be a 50 percent decline in fish harvest, PHP26 billion average agriculture losses per year, and 50 percent increase in food prices.
As a result, De Guzman said about “1.4 million Filipinos will start to go hungry by 2030 and 2.5 million more by 2050,” De Guzman said that high temperatures caused by climate change trigger the surge of diseases in the country such as dengue, malaria, cholera, and typhoid fever; and that climate change-induced heat in workplaces, too, is rendering 10 percent loss in working hours.
“Given this outlook, there is no other solution but to act now,” De Guzman said, adding that his agency is offering help to LGUs in addressing climate change in the field of adaptation and mitigation.
Batac City Vice Mayor Jeoffrey Nalupta said that “since these will happen with great probability, we will experience worse scenarios if we remain deaf and blind to these realities.”
Nalupta lamented that water scarcity in Batac and in other municipalities of the province is a big problem thus, most farmers are spending much on fuels and electricity for irrigation to keep their crops in shape until harvesting.
“The bottom-line of these are reduced production yields, increased production cost, higher risk to damages and losses of agricultural infrastructure and crops, lost capital, and unsteady income, among others,” Nalupta said.
Nalupta challenged other LGU leaders in Region 1 to take De Guzman’ words seriously as he cited the 1,200 small farm reservoirs the Batac City government built in various rural barangays of the city.
At present, there are now six small water impounding projects that the city government built in areas validated by the Bureau of Soils and Water Management to be feasible.
The forum aimed to create an avenue for knowledge sharing on climate change-related issues among scientists, members of the academe, and government and non-government organizations. (Reynaldo Andres/PNA)
