The Negros Oriental Board is crafting an ordinance to combat climate change, to be known as the Climate Change Ordinance of Negros Oriental 2009.

Authored by Board Member Lea Ga Bromo, the proposed law seeks to consolidate the efforts of individuals, institutions and the provincial government to address urgent life-threatening risks of climate change to all vulnerable communities.

The Philippines has been identified as a highly vulnerable country to the effects of climate change such as tropical cyclones and prolonged droughts, resulting in social and ecological devastation and economic loss.
At a public hearing of the Provincial Board's Environment Committee, Silliman University president Dr. Ben Malayang III was called upon to give inputs to the proposed ordinance.

Malayang, a former environment undersecretary, said the proposed law is a breath of fresh air, given the bleak scenario which is unfolding in the meeting of world leaders in Copenhagen to address the same issue.
China and the United States, the two largest greenhouse gas-producing countries in the world, appeared unwilling to undertake measures to curb their greenhouse gas emissions as the Copenhagen convention drew to a close.

"It's really Copenhagen or bust. But let us be hopeful that we can survive even without Copenhagen. If we can effect local solutions throughout the world, government actions will be superfluous. There is always something hopeful about local action," Malayang said.

Malayang suggested that the province conducted a vulnerability audit to come up with a list of environmentally risky activities and how to overcome them. "To reduce vulnerability, we have to reduce the risks or increase our capability to respond to it, but the best is to do both," Malayang said.

The results of the vulnerability audit would then be the basis for an action agenda for the province, where climate change measures will be included in the provincial development and investment plans and in the annual plans of the local government units.

"The challenge is how to shift the onus from the bureaucracy to society," Malayang said.

He suggested moves to reduce climate change damage, such as relocating homes from riverbanks, avoid building more highways along the coastlines, practice contour farming, and the planting of bamboos along the riverbanks.
"It would be best to go beyond the bureaucracy by having a social, economic and political response to these risks, and provide for their funding mechanism," Malayang also said.*AP

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