ANGELES CITY- Top leaders World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and its corporate social responsibility arm Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) urged local folk to prepare for the effects of climate change that could make this city, 170 feet above sea level, the host of migrants surrounding prone-flood towns in the near future.
Top Philippine WWF leaders were at the Clark Freeport the other day to help map out a “climate- defined” future for local business amid climate change that has made unusual weather worldwide the new “normal.”
Jose Ma. Lorenzo Tan, chief executive officer of the WWF Philippines, said that climate change and worsening floods could eventually drive folk in low-lying towns in Pampanga to migrate to Angeles.
“Is Angeles prepared for that scenario?” he asked during WWF’s third and last phase of “business risk assessment and the management of climate change impacts project” that would cover 14 cities in the country.
Tan noted that “Angeles is not flood prone, but the United Nations has projected that the impact of climate change would not be so much marginalization as migration.”
He noted that the WWF study now being conducted in Angeles would draw up opportunities for the city to cope with the adverse effects of climate change in the next 20 to 30 years.
The results of the study, based on inputs provided by local business and other groups, would be disclosed in November. A UN study has estimated that over one billion would be forced to leave their communities because of worsening floods arising from climate change.
In Asia, the estimate is about 400 million, he said. “Will Angeles take in the refugees? It’s not just the direct impact of rainfall (that must be considered in planning for climate change) but also the movement within the city,” Tan also said.
Tan stressed the importance of preparing for the adverse effects climate change on infrastructure. “If you can’t deliver goods nor travel (because of flooding), business stops. Is the North Luzon Expressway ready? There is a need for a lot of hardware climate adaptation,” he said.
He stressed the importance of the private sector in helping the government cope with climate change, as he cited a study indicating that most ports need retrofitting because of the rising sea levels worldwide.
“Heat causes thermal expansion and the greatest thermal expansion is in the Philippine Sea where 80 percent of goods are transported on water,” he said, noting that recent studies have indicated that from a two-meter clearance of local seaports from sea level, the clearance has been reduced to only half a meter.
He urged communities to also consider developing multi-water sources, such as surface waters or rainwater impounding projects, and veer away from pumping from aquifers or underground water which, he stressed, has been blamed for subsidence or lowering of ground level and thus makes areas more prone to flooding.
WWF Philippines already finished similar studies on how to cope with climate change impacts in the cities of Baguio, Cebu, Davao and Iloilo under Phase 1 in 2011 and Cagayan de Oro, Dagupan, and Zamboanga under Phase 2 in 2012.
It started Phase 3 in Angeles City this year, to be followed by the cities of Batangas, Naga and Tacloban.
