The Philippines urged members of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific to strengthen disaster resilience, particularly through enhancing early warning systems in the region, citing increasing risk of disasters caused by climate change. Renewed calls for urgent action came as the country was elected chair of the eighth session of the Committee on Disaster Risk Reduction of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

As a subsidiary body of ESCAP, the committee is the intergovernmental legislative forum on disaster risk reduction (DRR) in the Asia-Pacific region. One of the five regional commissions of the UN ESCAP promotes cooperation among its 53 member states and nine associate members in pursuit of solutions to sustainable challenges.

Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Chief of Staff and Undersecretary for Strategic Communications Marilou G. Erni, the designated head of the Philippine delegation, was elected by delegates from other member countries to chair the DRR panel during its eighth session at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok, Thailand from July 25 to 27.

“A riskscape of complex, compound and cascading disasters is emerging. Forecasts are for risks in existing disaster hotspots to intensify and for new disaster hotspots to appear. There is an urgent need to strengthen the disaster resilience, particularly through enhancing early warning systems, in Asia and the Pacific,” said Erni.

ESCAP’s Asia-Pacific Disaster Report 2023 warned that the Asia-Pacific region has a narrow window to increase its disaster resilience as extreme weather events and natural hazards have become more frequent and intense. The ESCAP report indicated that “in the absence of immediate action, temperature rises of 1.5°C and 2°C will cause disaster risk to outpace resilience beyond the limits of feasible adaptation and imperil sustainable development.”

ESCAP data showed that the Asia-Pacific region remains the most disaster-prone region in the world where about two million people have lost their lives to disasters since 1970s.

Erni reiterated the Philippines’ call for concrete, urgent action through “an all-hazards, whole-of-society, anticipatory, integrated approach to climate and disaster risk governance, and transformative adaptation across the Asia-Pacific region.”

Erni also served as panelist during the session on transformative adaptation, where she delivered the country’s statement on key emerging outcomes expected from the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (APMCDRR) in 2024, which the Philippines will be hosting in October next year. She noted that the APMCDRR 2024 will put a spotlight on the private sector, and advocate for its full engagement in DRR.

“Slowly, the private sector shifted to implementing disaster risk reduction with a development framework and whole-of-society approach, and with resilience as a goal,” Erni added.

Erni further noted that through the DENR’s support, the private sector has been aligning its respective environment, social and governance or ESG targets, and investments with local priorities and targets on climate change adaptation and DRR.

The Philippine delegation was composed of officials from the DENR, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the Department of Science and Technology, and the Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines in Thailand. ####