"Climate change will aggravate the misery of an already
over-burdened Filipino community," said Leoncio Amadore PhD, one of
the Philippine's foremost meteorologists and author of the study
"Climate Change Impacts in the Philippines: Crisis or
Opportunity". The study determined that increasing trends in
temperature, sea level rise and extreme climate events in the
Philippines are consistent with global trends.
Dr Amadore added that findings in the Third Assessment Report by
the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have
been manifested in the Philippines by extreme climate occurrence
such as, floods, droughts, forest fires, and an increase in
tropical cyclones in tropical Asia.
The severity of climate change is already bringing two of the
world's mightiest rivers at the brink of collapse. Scientists from
the Chinese Academy of Sciences say that environmental damage
linked to climate change is pushing the Yellow River source into an
ecological breakdown, threatening the lifeblood of 120 million
people who rely on it for domestic as well as agricultural and
industrial uses. In the Amazon river region, one of the worst
droughts ever recorded is damaging the world's largest rainforest,
with wildfires breaking out, fresh drinking water becoming scarce
and polluted and the death of millions of fish as the streams dry
up.
The sector most affected by climate change, is agriculture and
food security. The sharpest falls in agricultural production are
experienced during strong El Niño events and after the occurrence
of severe tropical cyclones.
"Climate change is not caused by developing countries yet the
poorest people of Asia will bear the brunt of global warming," said
Amadore. "The same vulnerable countries in the region sadly are
not well-poised to respond to such disasters. Countries must
combine both adaptive strategies such as disaster-preparedness
programs and, continuous vulnerability assessments along with
emission reduction measures such as displacing fossil power with
renewables and energy efficiency."
"Renewable energy is starting to deliver the goods for millions
of people worldwide. The wind resources of the Philippines and
China are enormous.¹The potential for energy efficiency and
conservation across the region is huge. Asia faces the choice of
embracing ruin or opportunity," said Red Constantino of Greenpeace
Southeast Asia. Greenpeace also called on international funding
institutions, such as the Asian Development Bank, to act
commensurate to the scale of the problem by re-orienting financing
away from coal and towards renewable energy.
Greenpeace's "Asia Energy Revolution Tour" of Australia, Hong
Kong, Philippines and Thailand calls for an urgent break from coal
and to promote a massive shift to clean, renewable energy. In the
Philippines, Greenpeace is campaigning for the government to
generate 10% of the country's energy supply from the sun, wind and
modern biomass by 2010.
Greenpeace is an independent campaigning organisation that uses
non-violent creative confrontation to expose global environmental
problems to force solutions that are essential to a green and
peaceful future.
Other contacts: Red Constantino, Regional Energy campaigner, +63 917 524 1123 Athena Ronquillo, Greenpeace International Energy Campaigner + 63 9178131 562 Michael Kessler, Greenpeace International Communications + 63 915 945 0066
VVPR info: Copies of Regional Climate Change Impacts: Philippine Photos of Southeast Asian Drought available from: John Novis, Greenpeace International Photo Editor +31 6 53 81 91 21 Setting and its executive Summary can be downloaded at http://www.greenpeace.org/seasia/en/asia-energy-revolution/climate-change/philippines-climate-impacts Wind Guangdong. See: www.asiacleanenergy.org
Exp. contact date: 2005-12-19 00:00:00