Climate Change Adaptation

Ecosystem-based adaptation and climate insurance are building resilience to the negative impacts of climate change in the Philippines.

The Philippines is highly vulnerable to extreme weather events caused by climate change. Increasing loss and damage from typhoons, heavy rains, and slow-onset sea level rise are increasing poverty, triggering migration and weakening the country’s competitiveness.

Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) and risk transfer mechanisms (including climate insurance) could transform climate change adaptation in the Philippines. Integrated ecosystem management (IEM) tools and guidelines are available, but mainstreaming EbA into national planning has been inadequately implemented. There has to be more focus on insurance for “green” infrastructure as a risk management tool, as the market for such insurance products is underdeveloped.

The project aims to institutionalise sustainable disaster risk management in the Philippines through explicit use of ecosystem-based adaptation and climate insurance. Implementing partners, local civil society organisations, cooperatives and producer communities will be trained to mainstream EbA into development activities. These include:

• piloting EbA measures with explicit biodiversity considerations
• developing a national framework and climate insurance products for financial risk transfer to benefit small and medium enterprises (SMEs), infrastructure, agriculture, and communities.
• transferring knowledge/experience from implementation into national and international frameworks.

The successes of these activities will extend beyond the project timeframe and serve as basis for scaling-up activities. Long-term dissemination of project results is guaranteed through mainstreaming in relevant planning guidelines.