IF THERE is one vehicle in the country that deserves blaring sirens, it?s the ambulance called climate action. Its mission: administer public finance ASAP to communities most vulnerable to increasingly severe climate change impacts.

A team composed of the country?s best environmental, scientific and political medics is ready. What the ambulance needs desperately is the best driver in town. His name is P-Noy.

The dangers posed by climate change are no longer unknown to us: Feverish temperatures, intense precipitation and severe drought, rising sea levels and storm surges. We have already begun to experience what the future might be like if concerted global action is not taken soon.

We also know who will be hit hardest: impoverished working Filipinos.

Few doubt that action needs to be taken with a sense of urgency equal both to principles of basic justice and the magnitude of the climate threat facing the Philippines. But it is no longer sufficient to just demand dramatic greenhouse gas emissions reductions from developed nations, or to simply insist that funds from those responsible for the problem flow urgently towards developing countries.

It?s time to take steps that decisively protect our people. The failure of Copenhagen talks has left developing countries like the Philippines with little choice but to take local action.

Chaos currently reigns over the administration of foreign-sourced climate finance that has entered the Philippines, thus skewing domestic action towards the wrong priorities. More international finance has gone to mitigation efforts instead of adaptation activities. Worse, it appears most resources allocated for Philippine adaptation efforts have come in the form of loans. Like World Bank?s $250-million package supposedly to help recovery efforts of Filipinos hit by ?Ondoy? and ?Pepeng.?

All this is contrary to the negotiating position in the global climate talks championed for years by the Philippines: climate finance is neither aid nor charity but compensatory. It would be folly to depend on the largesse of developed countries.

Global funds for climate-resilient development appear to be proliferating at unprecedented rates, but the scale of resources so far pledged is far from what?s required to meet the needs of countries like the Philippines. In addition, most of the pledges remain just that?pledges written on water, many recycled from previous commitments.

This is the reason why new climate-driven public finance initiatives from luminaries such as Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile deserve the public?s support. Among other aims, Enrile intends to establish what he calls The National Survival Fund, which will help secure the long-term viability of Philippine development ambitions and prioritize areas in the country that require urgent adaptation support.

It?s time to make adaptation to climate change the national imperative. It?s time to ensure domestic policy measures are consistent with such a position.

?RENATO REDENTOR CONSTANTINO,
Director of the Institute for Climate
and Sustainable Cities