BAYBAY CITY, Leyte—Students, teachers and officials of the Visayas State University (VSU) in Baybay City, Leyte, together with representatives from Eastern Visayas civil society and local governments, joined a two-day event that was held at the school recently in order to build climate-change resilience in the region through science and the arts.
The event, titled “Klima Eskwela: Climate Science, Adaptation and the Arts,” was organized by ICSC, The Climate Reality Project Philippines (Climate Reality Philippines), and the VSU Regional Climate Change Research and Development Center (RCCRDC), ICSC said.
“Climate change is already happening in different regions around the world and on multiple levels. We are all affected, whether we come from rich or from developing countries. Everyone has to participate and do their part,” said Lourdes Tibig, a Filipina climate scientist and Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) advisor.
“In the Philippines, there is still a disconnect in government systems in terms of adapting to and mitigating climate change. Local communities sometimes lack access to the needed resources,” Tibig said.
“There is no going back regarding the changes happening in the climate system, which is why we have to do whatever we can to contribute to the efforts to address climate change,” she added.
For years, the Eastern Visayas region has been at the forefront of climate impacts, both slow onset impacts—such as sea level rise, increasing sea surface temperatures, and ocean acidification—and extreme weather events.
The region was the first to be hit by Super Typhoon Yolanda (international code Haiyan) in 2013.
Dr. Eduardo Mangaoang, director of the VSU RCCRDC and member of the National Panel of Technical Experts of the Climate Change Commission, presented the study that aims to bring Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance (CDRFI) to Yolanda-affected communities.
He pointed out the importance of building on local resources and opportunities, and the need for proper coordination among stakeholders with local governments at the helm, in order to ensure the effective and sustainable implementation of CDRFI in Eastern Visayas, ICSC added.
“While the idea of insurance for disaster-related purposes is locally appreciated, there is a certain degree of skepticism among locals on its reliability and assurance of claim if ever receivables are due,” Mangaoang said.
“If CDRFI is to be implemented in the region, we need a simple, doable, and localized process to make it more accessible to all,” he added.
Local government, civil society, academia and youth representatives from Eastern Visayas signed an agreement to put people first and at the center of climate financing, especially those most at risk.
“We affirm the primacy of the humanitarian imperative: that action should be taken to prevent or alleviate human suffering arising out of disaster or conflict, and that nothing should override this principle,” they said in the document.
Arts and humanities also play an important role in climate action. In this sphere, the youth have been stepping up, according to Climate Reality Philippines branch manager Nazrin Camille Castro.
On the second day of Klima Eskwela, young artists and youth leaders of Baybay City brainstormed ideas for a mural as part of the “Poets for Climate” project of the branches of Climate Reality in the Philippines, Africa and Canada. The leaders will create the mural in the coming weeks, ICSC said.
“We trust that the artists will incorporate what they have learned in the first day of the learning session—including their insights on the latest climate science findings, and the experiences of the most vulnerable sectors in Baybay City—into the mural they will develop and its call to action,” Castro said.
“We could use the recent extreme weather events to put a spotlight on climate change impacts plaguing vulnerable countries, like the Philippines, for many years now. And there is no better way to showcase the similarities, diversity and connectedness of these lived experiences than through the arts. When we act collectively, we will definitely have a bigger impact,” Castro added.
The research study led by the VSU RCCRDC was done under the global Multi-Actor Partnership (MAP) project, which aims to provide spaces for discussion and discourse around CDRFI.
Recently, ICSC organized a workshop for MAP in Asia, where representatives from the Philippines, Lao PDR, Vietnam, Indonesia and Sri Lanka agreed to make climate finance in the region more pro-poor, equitable, and people-centered.
Poets for Climate supports the global poetry and arts campaign “When Is Now,” organized by the Climate Vulnerable Forum, ICSC, and The Agam Agenda.
To date, it has generated more than 60 poems from around 40 climate advocates across the globe and unveiled murals in several cities worldwide, including in Iloilo and Isabela in the Philippines to demand for urgent action among global leaders in the upcoming 27th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, ICSC said.
Image credits: Salie Agustin/ICSC photo