Coastal areas in the Philippines urged to prepare for climate change

Business Mirror (Philippines): British Ambassador to the Philippines Stephen Lillie said communities in the country’s coastal areas should increase capacity in climate-change adaptation as they are the most vulnerable to the rise of the sea level. The British government is funding a Transparency, Accountability and Government (TAG) project in cooperation with The Asia Foundation that increases knowledge and capacity of local government units (LGUs) to adapt to climate change.

Lillie said climate-change adaptation is Britain’s top priority in the Philippines, which has been identified by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as the most vulnerable in climate change. “As an island-nation, a huge population is at risk in the event of sea-level rising. There is a pressing need to raise awareness among the local people on the threats of climate change,” said Lillie during the TAG forum, hosted by The Asia Foundation over the weekend at the Mandarin Hotel in Makati.

He said LGUs, which have direct interaction with local communities, are in a better position to come up and implement common solutions to mitigate climate change Lillie said local leaders should address effective governance and political advocacy to be able to push for climate-change adaptation programs in their jurisdiction….

View in direction NNE from Mount Samat War Memorial, near Pilar, Bataan, Luzon Island, Philippines. Shot by Shubert Ciencia, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.