Rich Countries Must Pay For Storm Devastation

[churchill]

Getting money from countries whose development contributed to climate change would be at the forefront of the agenda of the Philippine delegation to the Copenhagen climate change talks this December.

Beyond getting these countries to shoulder the cost of reconstruction from the ravages of recent storms, however, experts say the Philippines and other countries that are bound to bear the worst of climate change should also pressure rich nations to shoulder the cost of adaptation.

Payback time

The negotiations to held in December is the last leg of ongoing climate change negotiations among some 140 countries led by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

During the negotiations, the Philippines is poised to drive home its demand that first-tier nations set aside 0.5%-1% of their gross domestic product as "remuneration" for accelerating global warming with their high level of greenhouse gas emissions.

The Philippines will put this stand on the table along with G-77, a negotiating bloc composed of developing countries.

Even as the country asks for the money, however, Environment and Natural Resources Undersecretary Lucille Sering stressed during the roundtable discussions on the economics of climate change conducted Thursday (October 29) by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) that the Philippines should move away from its usual "reactive" financing stance especially in the aftermath of typhoons Ondoy and Peping.

“Money is coming in,” Sering said, but the reality is, as she pointed out, the government has no clear programs yet on how to use the funds towards enhancing adaptation to climate change.

Wanted: clear programs

The government is now scrambling for funds as damages from the twin disasters have amounted to around P30 billion, with the agriculture sector hit the hardest with destroyed crops valued at P20 billion.

After the onslaught of typhoons Ondoy and Peping, Congress approved a P12-billion supplemental budget to jumpstart the rehabilitation of areas ravaged by the calamity.

Meanwhile, a public-private restoration commission plans to float $1-billon worth of bonds to multilateral agencies.

Even with different figures and funding sources coming in, however, government agencies remain clueless on how much will go to whom and for what.

This scenario is replicated in the international level as the Philippines has also yet to map its priorities and programs which are set to be bankrolled by the "payment" of developed countries.

Rosa Perez, a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, emphasized in the discussions yesterday that industrialized countries should "pay up" for placing poor countries at risk over the effects of global warming. First-tier countries have alarming levels of carbon discharge, the primary culprit behind climate change. It is the poor nations, however, which suffer the brunt of the consequences of the global phenomenon.

However, Sering said “we don’t know how much do we really need.”

There is currently a vacuum in studies for long-term strategies for both adaptation and mitigation, which Perez hoped would be filled in by the coordinating mandate of the newly-established Philippine Climate Change Commission.

From reactive to anticipatory

Government-owned-and-controlled corporations (GOCCs) present at the roundtable discussions proposed priorities for climate change financing.

Sering, however, particularly called on GOCCs to buck the oft-abused option of providing subsidies, as this only provides temporary relief.

Sering, also a former board member of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), pushed for energy efficiency, as 90 percent of PEZA’s expenses cover energy use.

The Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC), on the other hand, recommended to the country’s delegation to Copenhagen to include insurance as a target project for the adaptation funds.

PCIC Acting Senior Vice President Norman Cajucom told abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak that while the PCIC could shoulder the insurance costs of farmers affected by tropical storms Pepeng and Ondoy – estimated at P200 million – it would entail "anticipatory" and not reactive financing to withstand succeeding disasters. Anticipatory financing includes funding the shift to climate-resilient crops.

For the health sector, examples of anticipatory climate change financing include purchase of preventive medicines instead of treatment (reactive).

For land-use planning, this includes formulation and use of risk maps, which shows vulnerability to disaster, rather than retrofitting infrastructure.

ADB chief economist Juzhong Zhuang added that anticipatory financing may entail bigger costs, but by 2050, the benefits would far outweigh the expenses.

Vulnerable region

A 2004 World Bank study has specified that the Philippines had incurred an annual direct damage worth P15 billion due to natural disasters within the past 30 years.

Between 1970 and 2000, the Philippines incurred an annual direct damage of P15 billion due to natural disasters, representing 0.7 percent of the country’s gross domestic product each year.

Perez pointed out though that this does not take into account the gravity of current storms such as Ondoy.

On the other hand, Zhuang, stressed in his presentation yesterday that the country is seated in a particularly vulnerable spot geographically speaking. This translates to bearing the region-wide costs of climate change on the economy.

Climate change could shave off $230 billion from, or 6.7 percent of, the region’s gross domestic product (GDP), he said. The economic backslide of climate change is worse for the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam because they have dense populations in coastal areas, are agriculture-driven, and have a frail adaptation backbone.

The 4 countries are also expected to suffer from a decline in rice yield by 50 percent due to climate change. By 2020, the Philippines is forecasted to receive the biggest blow with a 75 percent plunge. Indonesia’s yield would dip by 34 percent.

Thus, the need for these countries to pressure those that achieved development at the cost of climate change to pay up.

Pricing debate

Having industrialized nations open up their respective burses, however, is a contentious issue in the climate change negotiations, as the United States continues to lock horns with China, India and Brazil over the magnitude of their respective accountability.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was the only one who put a price tag of $100 billion for the adaptation fund.

This considered, Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change advised developing countries to ascertain their financing needs for adaptation and mitigation.

“Developing countries should individually assess their vulnerability so that we will know how much money they need,” he told Abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak during his visit to Manila last month.

http://newsbreak.com.ph/index.php?option=c...Itemid=88889051

[MJo]

Right, they do sell this warming hype well.

Anyone ever studied which has the biggest effect. SUV's driven in the west or uncontrollable population growth in the east ?

Should we ask Pope to pay for the damages as he's the biggest contributor in this case by banning rubber ?

[MJo]

Or should this be closed right away as this has nothing to do with Thailand?

[churchill]

Nothing to do with Thailand ?

"Perez pointed out though that this does not take into account the gravity of current storms such as Ondoy.

On the other hand, Zhuang, stressed in his presentation yesterday that the country is seated in a particularly vulnerable spot geographically speaking. This translates to bearing the region-wide costs of climate change on the economy.

Climate change could shave off $230 billion from, or 6.7 percent of, the region’s gross domestic product (GDP), he said. The economic backslide of climate change is worse for the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam because they have dense populations in coastal areas, are agriculture-driven, and have a frail adaptation backbone.

The 4 countries are also expected to suffer from a decline in rice yield by 50 percent due to climate change. By 2020, the Philippines is forecasted to receive the biggest blow with a 75 percent plunge. Indonesia’s yield would dip by 34 percent.

Thus, the need for these countries to pressure those that achieved development at the cost of climate change to pay up. "

West allowed to drive SUV's , the East not allowed Children !!

"SUV's driven in the west or uncontrollable population growth in the east ?"

[MJo]

My post mentioned thailand as well

[yabaaaa]

Getting money from countries whose development contributed to climate change would be at the forefront of the agenda of the Philippine delegation to the Copenhagen climate change talks this December.

Beyond getting these countries to shoulder the cost of reconstruction from the ravages of recent storms, however, experts say the Philippines and other countries that are bound to bear the worst of climate change should also pressure rich nations to shoulder the cost of adaptation.

Payback time

The negotiations to held in December is the last leg of ongoing climate change negotiations among some 140 countries led by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

During the negotiations, the Philippines is poised to drive home its demand that first-tier nations set aside 0.5%-1% of their gross domestic product as "remuneration" for accelerating global warming with their high level of greenhouse gas emissions.

The Philippines will put this stand on the table along with G-77, a negotiating bloc composed of developing countries.

Even as the country asks for the money, however, Environment and Natural Resources Undersecretary Lucille Sering stressed during the roundtable discussions on the economics of climate change conducted Thursday (October 29) by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) that the Philippines should move away from its usual "reactive" financing stance especially in the aftermath of typhoons Ondoy and Peping.

“Money is coming in,” Sering said, but the reality is, as she pointed out, the government has no clear programs yet on how to use the funds towards enhancing adaptation to climate change.

Wanted: clear programs

The government is now scrambling for funds as damages from the twin disasters have amounted to around P30 billion, with the agriculture sector hit the hardest with destroyed crops valued at P20 billion.

After the onslaught of typhoons Ondoy and Peping, Congress approved a P12-billion supplemental budget to jumpstart the rehabilitation of areas ravaged by the calamity.

Meanwhile, a public-private restoration commission plans to float $1-billon worth of bonds to multilateral agencies.

Even with different figures and funding sources coming in, however, government agencies remain clueless on how much will go to whom and for what.

This scenario is replicated in the international level as the Philippines has also yet to map its priorities and programs which are set to be bankrolled by the "payment" of developed countries.

Rosa Perez, a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, emphasized in the discussions yesterday that industrialized countries should "pay up" for placing poor countries at risk over the effects of global warming. First-tier countries have alarming levels of carbon discharge, the primary culprit behind climate change. It is the poor nations, however, which suffer the brunt of the consequences of the global phenomenon.

However, Sering said “we don’t know how much do we really need.”

There is currently a vacuum in studies for long-term strategies for both adaptation and mitigation, which Perez hoped would be filled in by the coordinating mandate of the newly-established Philippine Climate Change Commission.

From reactive to anticipatory

Government-owned-and-controlled corporations (GOCCs) present at the roundtable discussions proposed priorities for climate change financing.

Sering, however, particularly called on GOCCs to buck the oft-abused option of providing subsidies, as this only provides temporary relief.

Sering, also a former board member of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), pushed for energy efficiency, as 90 percent of PEZA’s expenses cover energy use.

The Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC), on the other hand, recommended to the country’s delegation to Copenhagen to include insurance as a target project for the adaptation funds.

PCIC Acting Senior Vice President Norman Cajucom told abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak that while the PCIC could shoulder the insurance costs of farmers affected by tropical storms Pepeng and Ondoy – estimated at P200 million – it would entail "anticipatory" and not reactive financing to withstand succeeding disasters. Anticipatory financing includes funding the shift to climate-resilient crops.

For the health sector, examples of anticipatory climate change financing include purchase of preventive medicines instead of treatment (reactive).

For land-use planning, this includes formulation and use of risk maps, which shows vulnerability to disaster, rather than retrofitting infrastructure.

ADB chief economist Juzhong Zhuang added that anticipatory financing may entail bigger costs, but by 2050, the benefits would far outweigh the expenses.

Vulnerable region

A 2004 World Bank study has specified that the Philippines had incurred an annual direct damage worth P15 billion due to natural disasters within the past 30 years.

Between 1970 and 2000, the Philippines incurred an annual direct damage of P15 billion due to natural disasters, representing 0.7 percent of the country’s gross domestic product each year.

Perez pointed out though that this does not take into account the gravity of current storms such as Ondoy.

On the other hand, Zhuang, stressed in his presentation yesterday that the country is seated in a particularly vulnerable spot geographically speaking. This translates to bearing the region-wide costs of climate change on the economy.

Climate change could shave off $230 billion from, or 6.7 percent of, the region’s gross domestic product (GDP), he said. The economic backslide of climate change is worse for the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam because they have dense populations in coastal areas, are agriculture-driven, and have a frail adaptation backbone.

The 4 countries are also expected to suffer from a decline in rice yield by 50 percent due to climate change. By 2020, the Philippines is forecasted to receive the biggest blow with a 75 percent plunge. Indonesia’s yield would dip by 34 percent.

Thus, the need for these countries to pressure those that achieved development at the cost of climate change to pay up.

Pricing debate

Having industrialized nations open up their respective burses, however, is a contentious issue in the climate change negotiations, as the United States continues to lock horns with China, India and Brazil over the magnitude of their respective accountability.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was the only one who put a price tag of $100 billion for the adaptation fund.

This considered, Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change advised developing countries to ascertain their financing needs for adaptation and mitigation.

“Developing countries should individually assess their vulnerability so that we will know how much money they need,” he told Abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak during his visit to Manila last month.

http://newsbreak.com.ph/index.php?option=c...Itemid=88889051

Bloody drivel. "Darling" has just admitted the tax on long haul flights in the UK is to help bail out the "*ankers" sorry Bankers.