City Hall slates Climate Change Summit today
The city government conducts this afternoon a Multi-stakeholder Forum on Climate Change Adaptation at the Zamboanga City Coliseum in Tetuan with Defense Acting Secretary Norberto B. Gonzales, chairman of the National Disaster Coordinating Council, as guest of honor and keynote speaker.
Anchored on the theme, “Reducing Disaster Risk in a Changing Climate,” the forum is in coordination with the Office of Civil Defense and aims to discuss the city’s vulnerability to the effects of climate change, especially the coastal barangays. The summit is expected to start at 1 p.m.
Mayor Celso Lobregat, Congresswoman Beng Climaco-Salazar of District 1, Congressman Erbie Fabian of District 2, Councilor Abdurahman Nuño as president of the Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) will give their respective messages on Coping Mechanism and Gaps to Fully Adopt to Climate Change.
Nathaniel Cruz, officer-in-charge and deputy administrator of the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), will talk on the Philippine Climate Change Scenario, while Engr. Allan Rommel Labayog, senior research analyst of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), will discuss about Zamboanga City Disaster Risk Profile and Climate Change Scenario.
Barangay officials, students, teachers, business leaders and all other sectors have been invited to summit.
A year ago, the city government of Zamboanga took the lead in environmental protection when we initiated the Summit on Disaster Preparedness for Global Warming and Food Security, the first ever in Mindanao.
Intended to be the start of a long term and unremitting advocacy to save the environment by undertaking measures to mitigate the effects of global warming or the rising earth temperature, the Summit overshot its goal of 7,000 participants sending a strong signal that residents of the city are one in the effort to lessen or reduce the impact of global warming.
The speakers during the forum included representatives from national government agencies like PAG-ASA-Department of Science and Technology, Department of Agricutlure, Office of Civil Defense, Department of Health, Department of Education and National Solid Waste Commission. They were one in saying that global warming is the greatest challenge confronting the world today and that it is caused by greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, water vapor, nitrous oxide and methane which trap heat and light from the sun in the earth’s atmosphere thereby increasing the temperature. (Vic Larato)