The newly-formed National Panel of Technical Experts (NPTE) of the Climate Change Commission (CCC) has identified top 10 climate change-related hazards that the Philippines has to address.
These are rising sea levels, coastal erosion, flooding, increasing frequency and severity of tropical cyclones, extreme drought, temperature increase and rising urban heat index, extreme rainfall, climate-influenced diseases, wind patterns, and biodiversity loss.
The NPTE said the 10 require “urgent climate action,” adding these have brought salt intrusion in croplands due to rising sea levels, temperature increase, and large-scale flooding.
The NPTE – an advisory body on matters related to climate change, green technologies, and disaster risk reduction measures – is composed of 16 experts on the fields of environment and health, engineering, and economics.
Created in 2009, NPTE aims to consolidate disaster risk reduction measures into the country’s climate change, development, and poverty reduction plans. The term of the new panel will end in 2023.
Dr. Emma Porio of the Ateneo de Manila University, said the challenge of climate change in the Philippines is directly related to Filipinos’ consumption-driven lifestyle and the fast rate at which the Earth is consuming natural resources.
“One IPCC (United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) author was saying that at the rate we are consuming the Earth’s resources, and extracting, we would need three Earths to sustain our lifestyle as of now,” Porio said.
Dr. Nathaniel Alibuyog, dean at the College of Engineering of the Mariano Marcos State University, noted the deteriorating effect on rice yield of saltwater intrusion into rice fields as revealed in the NPTE’s studies in the island province of Bicol region.
Merriam Santillan, dean at the College of Engineering and Geosciences of the Caraga State University, said t salt intrusion can be attributed to excessive groundwater extraction and sea level rise.
“Studies show that saltwater intrusion has significant effects on the growth of rice as it decreases the protein content of rice among others,” Santillan said.
The country is still conducting further research on other varieties of rice that can withstand or adapt to saltwater intrusion and technology that can desalinate irrigation water. Ruelle Castro
