The Department of Budget and Management has proposed P453.1 billion climate change expenditures for 2023.
DBM said programs addressing climate change include avoidance of deforestation, monitoring of national and local climate change mitigation actions, conservation and protection of existing watershed and protected areas, support to research on climate change adaptation, and conduct of training on community-based climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, among others.
"Climate change, as they say, is already here with us to stay. The Philippines in fact is the third most vulnerable country to the impact of climate change, according to the 2017 World Risk Report," DBM Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said.
"We must therefore act decisively to avert the adverse effects of climate change. Government has in fact increased climate change expenditures from P289.7 billion in 2022 to P453.1 billion in 2023," she added.
The Budget chief said there are eight strategic priorities of the 2023 national expenditures for climate change.
These are food security, water security, ecosystem, and environmental stability, human security, climate-smart industries and services, sustainable energy, knowledge and capacity development, and crosscutting.
President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. earlier vowed to increase the funds for climate change programs and activities by an average of at least 15 percent yearly.
