The Philippine Online Chronicles

Manila has been cited as one of the cities most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, according to an international study conducted by a UK-based group.

Based on the results of the study, Manila is at extreme risk from climate change, along with Calcutta in India, Jakarta in Indonesia, and Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.

“Cities such as Manila, Jakarta and Calcutta are vital centers of economic growth in key emerging markets, but heat waves, flooding, water shortages and increasingly severe and frequent storm events may well increase as climate changes takes hold,” Maplecroft's principal environmental analyst Charlie Beldon said in a statement.

“The impacts of this could have far reaching consequences, not only for local populations, but on business, national economies and on the balance sheets of investors around the world, particularly as the economic importance of these nations is set to dramatically increase,” he said.

Manila has been noted as extremely vulnerabledue to the “combination of exposure to hazards, poor socio-economic factors and a low capacity to adapt.”

According to the report, Manila's population is expected to rise by 20% this decade.

The report also said that Manila has the highest exposure to flooding and typhoons out of the 20 fastest growing cities in the world. “Events such as this could well increase in frequency and severity, which should make improvements to the adaptive capacity of the city a priority for the national government of the Philippines.”

Disaster risk reduction programs

In a lecture about disaster risk reduction and preparedness at the Ateneo de Manila University Professional Schools in Makati last week, Manila Observatory executive director Antonia Yulo Loyzaga said that the government should focus more on disaster risk reduction measures than on emergency responses.

“Operationally, this is how we are conducting ourselves: hazards occur and we respond,” said Loyzaga.

Loyzaga also pointed to the role of local government on disaster preparedness, urging local government officials to monitor services like communication.

Presidential assistant for climate change Elisea Gozun backed up Loyzaga's point. “It is important to bring the problem of climate change adaptation down to the community level,” she said.

Iceland least vulnerable to climate change

The CCVI classified the Philippines as the 10^th of the top 30 countries “at extreme risk,” along with Haiti, Bangladesh, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Cambodia, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo and Malawi.

Twenty out of the top 30 countries identified by Maplecroft (or two-thirds of the list) are from Africa. All the countries on the list are developing nations.

“Many countries there are particularly vulnerable to even relatively low exposure to climate events,” Beldon said.

On the other hand, Iceland topped the list of countries least vulnerable to climate change.

The top 20 least vulnerable countries, with the exception of Qatar and Bahrain, are all in Europe.

Top carbon emitters China and US were categorized as “low risk,” though some of the latter's coastal regions like Florida, Louisiana, Georgia, North and South Carolina were rated as “high risk.”

The report will be included in Maplecroft's fourth annual Climate Change and Environmental Risk Atlas, which also assesses the impacts of climate on towns and cities.