CLIMATE-CHANGE experts and governments are agreed the future of efforts to cope with climate change is rather dim because of the serious gaps in policies, reduced budgets, and the still-high cost of renewable energy, where massive investments are needed if costs are to drop.

Environment Undersecretary Mary Anne Lucille Sering said the Philippines, along with other developing countries hit by a series of destructive effects of climate change, will make stronger demands from the rich economies “to pay up” at the United Nations Summit on Climate Change in Copenhagen in December since they remain “the worst pollutants with unremitting emissions of greenhouse gases.”

She also raised concerns that Manila is even putting hurdles in climate-change mitigation programs by slashing the budget of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) by P1.5 billion for 2010, from its original proposed budget of P11 billion.

She said the amount is intended for reforestation, an important component of climate-change mitigation programs. The agency is seeking the retention of its original P11-billion budget.

Sering, one of the lead government negotiators on climate change, said the government is coming up with the second National Communication to be submitted to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that will present the vulnerabilities of the Philippines and the requirements for financial and strategic assistance from the rich economies.

“The whole soul of the negotiations is for the developing countries to have the finance and strategic assistance for mitigation and adaptation measures from the rich economies,” said Sering at the roundtable discussion on the Economics of Climate Change at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Pasig City, hosted by the British Embassy in Manila and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

She said the Philippines joins the G-77 in the UN Copenhagen Summit to call for developed economies to allocate 0.5 percent to 1 percent of their respective gross domestic product to fund climate-change mitigation and adaptation programs of the developing countries—this to be over and above their respective official development assistance to developing nations.

A representative from the energy sector called on the government to encourage energy firms to engage in, and increase investments if already investors, in renewable sources of power.

“It’s also possible for the Energy Regulatory Commission to mandate distribution utilities to explore renewable-energy,” said a representative from the energy department. “The problem is that the energy sector is more regulatory and not market-driven.”

An official of the National Electrification Administration said the Philippines has 200,000 megawatts of renewable-energy capacity and the government only needs to provide incentives for private-sector investments in solar, wind and geothermal energy sources.

Dr. Juzhong Zhuang, assistant chief economist of the ADB economics and research department, said the private sector should take advantage of the business opportunities in the government’s climate- change mitigation and adaptation programs in such investment areas as forestry, energy and agriculture.

He added that the government should provide incentives to the private entities that engage in improving irrigation systems and infrastructure projects such as flood control.