Cebu seen to lose more coastal areas in 20 years

Updated January 21, 2009 12:00 AM

Cebu - Scientific findings showed that in a matter of five years, there will be a one-meter rise in sea water level in the whole archipelago.

In 10 years, sea level is projected to rise by four meters while recent study shows that in 20 years, almost half of the city of Mandaue and Mactan Island will be wiped out of the map as the sea level once more rises by seven meters --- the alarming effects of global warming and climate change.

“Global warming, let me clarify to everybody is irreversible. All these destructions will happen whether we like it or not,” said lawyer Benjamin Cabrido, environmental law professor of the University of San Jose-Recoletos, representing the academe as well as the civil society during the Metro Cebu Summit on Climate Change.

USAID Office of Energy and Environment chief Daniel Moore confirmed that the country is highly vulnerable to the stakes brought by climate change due to its archipelagic nature.

USAID offered technical assistance to the initiatives of the government to protect the country and its people knowing the situations and problems that the country is facing in the next decades.

To address the current pressing environment concerns which are the air quality deterioration and climate change, the Cebu City government initiated the Metro Cebu Summit on Climate Change and Convening of the Metro Cebu Airshed Governing Board yesterday.

National and local leaders, representatives from other government line agencies, development partners such as government and non-government agencies, the civil society and other concerned individuals attended the event to be updated of the actions that the local government is working on to “prevent or minimize the effects of climate change to the community.”

The summit has been a very significant event in the history of the country as the first convening of the Airshed Governing Board was made possible only in Cebu whose members included Department of Environment and Natural Resources officials, mayors of 11 municipalities and cities of Metro Cebu, other government line agencies, people’s organizations, NGOs and representatives from the private sector.

DENR Undersecretary Demetrio Ignacio and all the stakeholders present during the convention approved and signed the resolution for the creation of the governing board as well as resolutions for additional policies that will strengthen and monitor the development of the group.

The function of the governing board primarily will deal with the formulation of policies that mandate mitigating and eventually adaptive measures of the government to address the impact of climate change to Cebu and its people.

“But we are here not merely to convene but mainly to save the territorial jurisdiction of our place,” Cabrido said pertaining to the loss of lands that Cebu and the whole archipelago will likely experience once the time for it has come.

The Airshed Governing Board will first focus on mitigating measures for a low-carbon economy to attain and maintain the ambient air quality standards.

The job will be devolved to local officials who will take charge of their respective jurisdictions and share the responsibility in the management and maintenance of air quality.

“We only have 10 years to mitigate but after it, we are left with no choice but to shift all our policies that implement mitigating measures to policies that will implement adaptive measures,” Cabrido added.

When that time comes, Cabrido said we can only go until accepting the reality that Cebu will be losing a portion of its land affecting thousands of people living in low-lying areas that will be first hit by the inevitable phenomena.

The Senate is also working on how to address these concerns through the Renewable Act of 2008 which promotes the use of renewable resources as sources of energy. This law hopes to achieve energy sufficiency now that fossil fuels and other non-renewable resources used as energy source are deteriorating.

Representing the Senate during the summit was Senator Miguel Zubiri who believes that government policies should indeed shift away from fossil fuels to renewable resources because these fossil fuels are the main contributors to global warming as these emit more greenhouse gases that warm the atmosphere. – Jessica Ann R. Pareja/MEEV (THE FREEMAN)