Extreme weather events like heat waves, droughts and floods are getting worse in all the continents.
They are exceeding plants’ and animals’ tolerance thresholds, driving mass mortalities in species like trees and corals.
Climatologists say these weather extremes are occurring simultaneously, causing streaming impacts that are increasingly difficult to manage.
They add these extremes have exposed millions of people to acute food and water insecurity, especially in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, on Small Islands and in the Arctic.
Which points to urgent action as a requirement to deal with increasing risks.
Climate change authorities have suggested ambitious and accelerated action must be done to avoid mounting loss of life, biodiversity and infrastructure.
Such action is required to adapt to climate change, at the same time as making rapid, deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
Experts admit that progress on adaptation is uneven and there are increasing gaps between action taken and what is needed to deal with the increasing risks, with gaps largest among lower-income populations.
At home, the Philippines submitted its NDC to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in April 2021, pledging a projected reduction and avoidance of greenhouse gas emissions of 75 percent for the period 2020–2030, of which 2.71 percent is unconditional and 72.29 percent is conditional.
Simply put, an NDC is the Nationally Determined Contribution, a climate action plan to cut emissions and adapt to climate impacts.
Each Party to the Paris Agreement is required to establish an NDC and update it every five years.
In 2009, the Philippine Congress passed the Climate Change Act creating the CCC or Climate Change Commission to develop policies and coordinate government programs on climate change.
The CCC in turn developed the National Climate Change Action Plan that serves as a road map for all climate change programs in the Philippines.
In Paris in 2015, world leaders from 197 countries pledged to put people first and reduce their countries’ greenhouse gas emissions.
The Paris agreement aims to limit global warming to well below 2ºC and ideally to 1.5°C.
If governments act swiftly on the promises they made in the Paris climate agreement, and implement the solutions now, there’s still hope of avoiding the worst consequences of climate change.