The Climate Change Commission (CCC) on Saturday called for a “whole country effort” in carrying out the country’s national adaptation plan (NAP) to minimize risks related to climate change and its impacts.

In a news forum in Quezon City, CCC Assistant Secretary Rommel Cuenca said the Philippines has already submitted its NAP to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The NAP integrates climate change adaptation into policies, programs, and activities within all relevant sectors, necessitating a whole-of-country approach that involves not only the CCC, but all national government agencies, the private sector, science organizations, the academe, and local governments.

Cuenca said the NAP will allow the country “to make sure that all these plans are guided and aligned and integrated so that it becomes a whole-of-country effort and not just a proposal of the Climate Change Commission.”

“[It will be implemented] in all sectors — private sector, academe, national government — they each have plans based on their respective mandate,” he added. 

Cuenca explained that the NAP aims to reduce vulnerability to the impacts of climate change by building adaptive capacity and resilience and facilitating the integration of climate change adaptation into policies and programs. 

“Adaptive capacity is the ability of a community, a region, a city, a country to be able to reduce the harm and to exploit the benefits that can come out of adaptation action,” he added. 

He mentioned that the government has already identified priority high-risk and climate change-vulnerable areas in the Philippines through the implementation of the NAP.