The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has identified at least three strategies to mitigate the effects of climate change in the country. 

This was bared by its chief, Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga, in an interview on Malacañang Insider.

Citing the agency’s first strategy, Loyzaga said the DENR is currently updating its Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory, an estimate of all emissions and removals of GHG from given sources and sinks within a defined spatial and temporal dimension. 

Loyzaga said the DENR’s second strategy revolves around its Nationally Determined Contribution Implementation Plan (NDCIP).

Loyzaga said the plan involves a framework and a database approach toward reducing our emissions by sector. 

“In the NDCIP, we take stock of which sectors are actually causing our emission to happen,” she added, noting that the government is focusing its efforts on the energy sector. 

Loyzaga noted that the efforts also centered on the emissions from the agriculture sector, industries, and solid waste. 

“So, in terms of strategy to bring down those emissions or what we call climate mitigation, we actually need to address the way we use fuels, the way we actually plant rice because a lot of that methane comes from the way we use wet and dry rice growing and the way we manage solid waste because methane comes from that as well,” she further explained.

Loyzaga stressed that energy consumption and the use of energy materials are counted as “principal contributors” to mitigating the impacts of climate change.

“So, NDCIP actually provides us with a framework and an estimate of what it would cause for us to actually move towards a low carbon future,” she pointed out. 

Loyzaga said the third strategy included the implementation of the National Adaptation Plan (NAP).

“This document looks at several hazards related to climate, and how it is enhanced or affected by climate change,” she said. “It looks at sea level rise. It looks at intense rainfall. It looks at intense winds for example. It looks at tropical cyclones and their impact on different sectors.”

According to Loyzaga, the NAP identifies government measures “to invest in natural and structural solutions or social programs,” and to become more resilient to the impacts of climate change.

“Taken together, these are a combination of strategies that we need to put forward in terms of interjecting in all the different mandates of the different governments, a climate resilience approach,” she emphasized. 

These strategies, she added, also complement the DENR’s ongoing works for its Program Convergence Budget.