The Climate Change Commission (CCC) has underscored the need to integrate climate resilience and sustainability as core strategies and principles to build back better in the post-pandemic era.
Hence, national and local leaders are being urged to adopt a green Covid-19 recovery plan to be able to secure a better for all Filipinos, the CCC said in a news statement.
Emphasizing that building back better should be the country’s way forward to overcome not only the challenges of the pandemic but also of the threat of a global climate crisis, the CCC cited a study conducted by Oxford Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment.
Through the study “Will Covid-19 fiscal recovery packages accelerate or retard progress on climate change?” the CCC highlighted that the Covid-19 crisis represents a dramatic shock to the global economy that will affect progress on climate change in multifaceted ways.
The CCC therefore underscored that economic recovery from Covid-19 crisis must be centered on ecological investment and climate resilience-building programs, such as supporting low-carbon technologies, eco-construction, eco-design policies and investments in research and development for ecological purposes, investment in education and training to address immediate unemployment from Covid-19, and natural capital investment for ecosystem resilience and regeneration. The CCC also cited the statement by the Global Commission on Adaptation—signed by world leaders, including former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa, and House Deputy Speaker Loren Legarda—urging countries to build back better from the pandemic and to incorporate climate resilience into economic recovery packages.
The CCC supported the GCA’s call for accelerated progress in seven areas: locally-led adaptation, urban resilience, water resources management, social safety nets, food security, nature-based solutions, and disaster prevention.
They also highlighted the call to “seize the opportunity to transform how we understand, plan, finance, and respond to risks” and to “integrate climate resilience into decisions at all levels of government and by businesses, communities, and households.”
With this, the climate body emphasized that the climate and environmental policies and laws in place must be enforced and inform the crafting of the country’s economic recovery packages to address the present and anticipate future challenges to our climate and environment, while promoting better health and wellbeing to all Filipinos.
In these challenging times, the CCC encouraged public and private sector leaders to foster a more people-centered approach to governance, promote inclusiveness, especially to the vulnerable and marginalized, and scale-up sustainable initiatives to ensure that no one gets left behind.
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