Climate Change Poses a Risk for PH Development

The World Bank states that climate change will continue to speed up, which constitutes a major risk for the long-term development of the Philippines.

In the World Bank’s report, climate change can hinder the goal of the Philippines becoming a high-income country by 2045 with its heavy effects on the livelihoods, properties, and lives of Filipinos.

Several indices rank the Philippines as one of the countries largely affected by extreme climates. For the last decade, the Philippines has been experiencing destructive typhoons almost every year.

Losses from typhoons have been pegged at an annual 1.2% of the economy or the gross domestic product (GDP). For extreme typhoons like Super typhoon Yolanda in 2013, the loss was 4.6% of the GDP.

According to the World Bank, if not addressed, climate change would continue to block economic activities, induce deep social disruptions, and damage infrastructure.

In the country climate change and development report of the World Bank for the Philippines,  they recommended initiatives to shield the economy from climate change.

Recommendations include increasing the availability of water, improving water storage to lessen the risk of droughts and damaging floods, and stopping construction in flood-prone areas.

Aside from these, the World Bank expressed intent to increase irrigation in rainfed areas and promote climate-smart agriculture practices like Alternate Wetting and drying (AWD).

The World Bank likewise suggested modifying social protection programs to be more scalable and adaptive to respond to climate shocks and to help the private sector invest more in renewable energy.

Source: Manila Bulletin