MANILA – Metro Manila ranks seventh among the “most vulnerable” areas to climate change in Southeast Asia, according to a recent study conducted on seven countries in the region.
As such, the study warned these areas will be extremely vulnerable to hazards like tropical cyclones, floods, landslides, drought and rise in sea level arising from changes in the climate.
The study, entitled “Climate Change Vulnerability in Southeast Asia,” was authored by Dr. Herminia Francisco, the director of the Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia and Dr. Ariel Yusuf Anshory.
The study, funded by the International Development Research Center based in Canada, also came up with what it called the New Regional Climate Change Vulnerability Map, which identified 13 other provinces in the Philippines as “climate hot spots.”
“This may not be the perfect map,” Francisco said. “But we hope this would bring people together to come up with effective adaptation programs to climate change. Climate change is here, it has been happening.”
The study covered 530 sub-national areas in seven countries in Southeast Asia composed of Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam which, significantly, are all members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
The three other Asean members not covered by the study are Singapore, Brunei and Burma (Myanmar).
Based on the study, most of the provinces and areas considered most vulnerable to climate change are found in Indonesia, with Central Jakarta at the top of the list, with North Jakarta, 2nd; West Jakarta, 3rd; East Jakarta, 5th; South Jakarta, 8th; Kota Bandung, 9th; and Kota Surabaya, 10th.
Mondol Kiri and Rotanokiri in Camboda were ranked 4th and 6th, respectively while Metro Manila in the Philippines came in 7th.
Metro Manila, the seat of the national government, is composed of 15 cities and one town with a total population of more than 12 million based on a 2007 survey.
Aside from Metro Manila, Francisco said the study also identified 13 other climate “hot spots” in the Philippines which are vulnerable to hazards arising from climate change like tropical cyclones, floods and landslides.
These are the Cordillera Administrative Region, Cagayan Valley, and the Ilocos Region in Northern Luzon; Central Luzon, Southern Luzon, Bicol Region, Eastern Visayas, Central Visayas, Western Visayas, Northern Mindanao, Western Mindanao, Southern Mindanao and Central Mindanao.
According to Francisco, the study was conducted to help affected communities as well as decision-makers to come up with ways to adapt to climate change.
Francisco pointed out the areas were judged on their exposure to hazards, the large sensitivity of the communities there due to population density and the low adaptive capacity of the community to climate change due to limitations on infrastructure, technology and poverty levels.
Francisco stressed: “We want to open the eyes of the public and decision makers on the effects of climate change so the allocation of funds could be specific to these areas to help the communities adapt to climate change.”
Based on the mapping assessment, all regions of the Philipines, the Mekong River Delta in Vietnam, almost all regions of Cambodia, North and East Laos, the Bangkok Region of Thailand and the West Sumatra, Western Java and Eastern Java areas of Indonesia are among the most vulnerable regions in Southeast Asia, Francisco concluded.
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