Philippines eighth most vulnerable to climate change
No commentsThe Philippines ranks eighth among the top ten countries most vulnerable to climate change, according to a new study presented at the ongoing United Nations climate summit here in Copenhagen.
With almost 800 deaths per year caused by vicious typhoons between 1990 and 2008, international advocacy organization Germanwatch has included the Philippines as one of the 10 countries most exposed to disastrous climate change impacts in its latest Long-Term Global Climate Risk Index (CRI) for 2010.
Germanwatch’s latest CRI ranking, which covers the period from 1990 to 2008, is based on the quantified impacts of extreme weather events experienced by countries that are signatories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The data shows that over the 18-year span the Philippines suffered every year 799 deaths in addition to an average of US$ 544 million worth of climate-related damages. According to the index, the nation suffered the maximum casualties from extreme weather conditions in 1991 while 2008 witnessed the most damage.
The Philippines has consistently ranked in the top ten of the Germanwatch climate risk index since 2006 as it regularly bears the brunt of storms and floods. Other countries dubbed as most vulnerable include Bangladesh, Myanmar, Honduras, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Haiti, India, Dominican Republic, and China. Bangladesh topped the 2010 index with an annual death toll of 8,240 plus about $2 billion in losses.
This appears consistent with the Fourth Assessment Report of the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which suggests a strong causal link between extreme weather events and global warming.
Germanwatch also stressed in its study that the countries most vulnerable to climate change are mostly developing countries belonging to the low-income or lower-middle income country group. The most-affected countries, they add, are also the least responsible for climate change, which is historically attributed to the industrialized countries like the United States and the Europe.
The report’s findings, however, do not come as surprise to the Philippines. In 2007, for example, Greenpeace had published a report entitled “The Philippines: A Climate Hotspot.” Predicated on the IPCC findings of projected sea-level rise, the report had mapped out Philippine’s vulnerable provinces and cities using geographic information systems. Indeed, even with a conservative one-metre rise in sea level, 64 out of the 81 provinces in the Philippines would be in danger of sinking and potentially displacing some 1.5 million Filipinos.
The report singles out the provinces of Sulu and Palawan as the two most vulnerable areas should the sea-level rise by one metre.The provinces of Northern Samar, Zamboanga Sibugay, Basilan, Cebu, Davao, Bohol, Camarines Sur, and Quezon, round up the top 10 in terms of vulnerabilities to a rising sea-level.
