Transcript Climate change and governance

Climate Change
and
Governance
Orlando Mercado, PhD
Secretary General
Eastern Regional Organization for Public Administration (EROPA)
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It is not only about the weather
or the environment.
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It is about governance:
Who controls resources;
how and why decisions are
made.
3
Strategic vision, accountability,
transparency, rule of law,
empowerment and meaningful
participation are the tools for adopting
to climate change.
4
How then do we “frame” climate
change stories?
Tactical
Strategic
Raising awareness
about risks
Getting people to
reduce risks to
disasters
Human interest
Public interest
5
Risk communication
Hazard + outrage = risk
(Peter Sandman, 1991)
Perception of
injustice, neglect
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Media as a channel for communication
vs. media as a constituency
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Challenges in the Philippines
Politics of personalities
 “It’s the economy, stupid”
 Cultural fatalism - “Bahala na”
 Weak political institutions
 Unbridled population growth

8
In the Philippines, climate change will have
its most profound impact on the poor who
live in low-lying and coastal areas that are
already prone to flooding and vulnerable to
typhoons.
9
Climate change will compound the problem of
poor housing and shelter for close to a fourth of
the population (22 million) who live in informal
settlements and slums in cities.
10
Without serious reforms in land use policy, energy policy and
improvements in governance, the quality of life of the next
generation of Filipinos will be held hostage by the cycle of
poverty-disasters-disease.
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