CCC to boost local studies on climate change to better educate Pinoys

The Climate Change Commission (CCC) vowed to continue raising climate change awareness among Filipinos as it celebrated its 10th anniversary on Wednesday.

CCC executive director, Secretary Emmanuel De Guzman, said that the commission will double its efforts to laymanize and localize international reports on climate action in a bid to make it easier to decipher for various stakeholders.

"What we have right now are global reports because climate change is a global problem. However, we want to understand more happenings or situation in the Philippines in terms of the threats presented by climate change," De Guzman said on the sidelines of the Philippine launch of an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) special report.

He underscored the need to strengthen the national agenda on conducting local research about climate change.

"We are collaborating with higher education institutions and state universities and colleges so that we can actually do more localized climate change adaptation- and mitigation-related researches together with our academicians and also our local government units," De Guzman said.

He added that if site-specific risks and vulnerabilities related to climate change are determined, the public will be better equipped.

"We call on the public, especially our local communities, to really invest in building their resilience to climate change. It is important that we consider the future threats to our livelihoods," he said.

"If we know these threats, then we can now prepare and invest in ways that we can avoid future losses and damages," he added.

The CCC, attached to the Office of the President, is a policy-making body mandated to coordinate, monitor and evaluate the programs and action plans of the government relating to climate change.

It was established by virtue of Republic Act 9729 or the Climate Change Act of 2009. —LDF, GMA News