Step up our resilience game against climate change

The world is changing due to climate change, making disaster resilience a crucial policy and planning concern. Communities have been faced with unprecedented challenges from global warming and intensifying extreme weather events. The impacts of climate change are increasing vulnerabilities, emphasizing the need for more resilient systems and plans.

Disaster resilience involves the ability of LGUs, communities, and individuals to be able to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters or emergencies. It also entails promoting adaptive capacity to withstand shocks and stresses while still maintaining vital functions and protecting community wellbeing. This concept is closely related to climate change, where the intensity and frequency of natural disasters and extreme weather events continue to escalate, threatening lives, livelihoods and even future generations.

Building more resilient infrastructure, together with sustainable urban planning, is a key component in promoting disaster resilience. Infrastructure systems form the backbone of modern and physically integrated society. Therefore, integrating climate-smart designs into transportation networks, telecommunications, water supply systems and energy grids, among others, becomes necessary for communities to minimize impacts of natural hazards and strengthen overall resilience.

Through effective early warning systems and accurate and timely information, well-constructed disaster preparedness plans can minimize losses during emergencies or disasters. They assist communities in taking precautionary measures, allowing for safe evacuation and ensuring individual safety.

We must also tackle underlying socioeconomic vulnerabilities when building our nation’s resilience through inclusive community-centric approaches. Limited social support systems coupled with unequal access to resources make vulnerable groups, such as children, women and elderly, become victims of climatic changes. In this regard, equitable resource distribution must be ensured, including equal access to information and decision-making processes.

The recent multiple forest fire incidents in the Mountain Province were stark reminders of how much we can lose. Typhoon “Yolanda,” which devastated Leyte and Samar over 10 years ago, demonstrates the interdependence of ecological, economic and social systems, as well as the need for a holistic approach in developing resilience.

Prioritizing resilience building is necessary for communities, businesses and policymakers. Strengthening vulnerable sectors and global linkages, and investing in innovative solutions can help us to prepare better for and recover from climate change impacts.

Let’s embrace resilience during National Disaster Resilience Month as a guiding principle that should be integrated into all our policies and practices. Strategic investments in resilience can pave the way to a more sustainable future. It is time to act now.

The country observes the National Disaster Resilience Month every July as stipulated under Executive Order 29 s.2017. Shifting focus from disaster awareness building to disaster resilience underscores the importance of making communities, organizations and local government units able to adapt and recover from hazards/disasters through an effective risk management system.