Philippine climate measures get increased funding

Tonette Orejas in Inquirer News (Philippines): Climate change adaptation and mitigation in the Philippines is getting a budget of P13 billion in 2014, up from P1 billion in 2011, an official of the Climate Change Commission said on Saturday.

The increased funding is tucked in the respective budgets of the departments of science and technology, environment and natural resources, agriculture, agrarian reform, public works and highways, health and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, said  Mary Ann Lucille Sering, the commission’s vice chair and executive director of the Climate Change Office.

Sering shared the information with reporters attending the final session of an environmental reporting fellowship for Filipino journalists organized by the Washington D.C.-based International Women’s Media Foundation. The session was held in Pasig City.

She said recent destructive typhoons had convinced the Aquino administration to take more preventive measures to save lives and resources.

Sering credited Budget Secretary Florencio Abad and Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima for supporting the allocation of additional funds to address the possible impacts of climate change locally...