The Climate Change Commission, in partnership with the Republic of Palau and Asian Development Bank, successfully convened the first of its three-day climate change adaptation forum, 17 October 2018 in Asian Development Bank in Mandaluyong City.

With the theme Enabling Resilience For All: Avoiding the Worst Impacts, the opening day of the Asia-Pacific Adaptation Network’s (APAN) 6th Asia Pacific Climate Change Adaptation Forum gathered government leaders, scientists, policy makers, and development partners from different countries across the Asia Pacific to discuss how humanity can adopt and withstand the impacts of climate change.

On his opening remarks, CCC Secretary Emmanuel de Guzman accentuates the need for massive coordination and visibility among regions to adapt and mitigate the impacts of climate change.

“Climate talk all over the world is happening in the same vein: The sense of urgency has finally sunk in… The efforts to build adaptation and resiliency are not anymore limited the global south,” De Guzman said.

De Guzman also highlighted that most programs of the Philippines are adaptation- and resiliency-heavy, emphasizing the CCC’s flagship capacity building program - the Communities for Resilience.

De Guzman also mentioned that our country is on the process of developing, enhancing, and ensuring the implementation of Local Climate Change Action Plan and the importance of the People’s Survival Fund in relation to disaster resilience.

He also reiterated the nation’s call to fight for the 1.5°C as entrenched in the Paris Agreement, following the release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 this month.

“What is relevant, what matters, is that we continue our work—we must do as much as we can, as fast as we can. We must take stock of everything we can do, and we must do it. We must adapt but also deploy more efficient, competition-driven, decentralized clean energy systems, promote inclusive mobility, build green, embed transparency, promote accountability, bake resilience into long term development policy,” De Guzman said.

“These efforts require massive coordination and visibility across regions. And we are here because we understand that the work of adaptation requires sharing what we know, deepening our linkages, and moving in lockstep with each other,” he concluded.

CCC also handled parallel sessions on Strengthening Resilience through Social Protection Programs, Local Governments at the Forefront, and Understanding the Cascading Risks of Climate Change.

A cocktail reception hosted by the Climate Change Commission closed the day one of the 6th Asia Pacific Climate Change Adaptation Forum.