MANILA, Philippines — An advocacy group for environmental stewardship has urged the government to incorporate digitalization into their climate initiatives, after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last week issued yet another update warning the world of the extreme and irreversible effects of global warming.
“The government has to match the initiatives of the private sector,” said Felix Vitangcol, co-convenor of the Philippine Business for Environmental Stewardship. “We are running out of time.”
He said the private sector had already made headway in this regard. “Some companies have already integrated digital technologies in their environment, social, and governance initiatives to boost effective stewardship of the environment.”
“These will upgrade and make our communities more sustainable and resilient,” he said. “Digital tools will lead to enhanced community infrastructure and deliver reliable information for better and timely decision-making.”
“A good model is data-backed Liveable Cities Challenge (LCC) dashboard project in partnership with the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF) and Globe Telecom which contain multi-year data on local communities’ basic information such as labor, education, local economy, doing business, mobility and connectivity, health, urban environment, resiliency and emergency response, and safety and security,” Vitangcol said.
The LCC dashboard utilizes data and innovation to help local communities and their governments spot local trends and their correlations for the community stakeholders’ timely and effective decision-making and help determine areas for improvement.
Erratic, intense, and frequent weather patterns like Typhoon Odette have long been battering the Philippines, an archipelago, and have caused untold damage in lives, properties, livelihoods and infrastructure.
“The Department of Finance reported that about 98.2 percent or P506.1 billion of the Philippines’ total economic losses, during the period of 2010 to 2020, can be attributed to climate-related events,” Vitangcol said.
He added that according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, when the country was hit by three consecutive typhoons in the last quarter of 2020, infrastructure and agricultural damages amounted to P30.76 billion. But when the country was hit by Odette alone during the last quarter of 2021, infrastructure and agricultural damages already amounted to P29 billion.
“PBEST underscores that with today’s increasingly unpredictable occurrences of climate-risks, Philippines’ economic losses will continue to increase,” Vitangcol said.
He added that the next administration should prioritize enabling the country’s immediate transition to a data-driven and digital-enabled economy.
“This is to advance the efficient monitoring of real-time environmental conditions and create opportunities to develop new plans of action anchored on long term sustainability, stewardship of the environment, and climate resiliency.”