"Climate change is our opportunity to make the Philippines a better nation. Even if it is a huge problem, it still has a positive side to it because it can change the way we govern our country... It is our only chance. This is a war and we will survive because there is no choice."

Commissioner Naderev Saño

Titled "Planting the Seeds of Change: The Philippines and the Climate Change Challenge," Commissioner Saño's lecture aimed to explore how the world and the Philippines respond to climate change. Likewise, he discussed the general context and implications of climate change in the Philippines.

Mr. Saňo likened his call to action to a seed that grows into a plant. He said that seeds have a profound significance in the Filipino culture because they serve as legacy of our ancestors -- having been passed on from generation to generation as source of our food. We've inherited the wisdom on how seeds are used to develop new varieties, cultivated and prepared as food , he elaborated on his seed metaphor.

He noted that like any topic, climate change has a poetic and practical aspect. "In the practical sense, we cannot help but discuss the impacts of climate change, such as environmental destruction, economic disruption, social dislocation, political destabilization, and food scarcity. However, climate change has a poetic side -- it is a manifestation of how people have been treating or exploiting nature," he explained.

He emphasized that it is wrong for Filipinos to blame climate change for every disaster that strikes the country. He cited the disaster surrounding 2009 Typhoon Ondoy and explained it as a result of lack of preparation, poor governance and many decades of abuse of our natural resources. He went on to discuss how the country is losing its forest cover and coastal resources at an alarming rate.

Almost everything in the Philippines is affected by climate change. The worst part is that climate change will exacerbate the impacts of existing non-climate stressors and institutional challenges on all sectors, he pointed out.

The Philippine government's response was the passing in late 2009 of Republic Act (RA) 9729, an act mainstreaming climate change into government policy formulations. The said act allowed the creation of the Climate Change Commission, the sole policymaking body tasked to coordinate, monitor, and evaluate climate change programs and action plans. To date, the Commission has two main deliverables:

1. National Framework Strategy on Climate Change (approved as of April 2010) - this framework employs twin strategies on mitigation and adaptation.
2. National and Local Climate Change Action Plan (due one year after approval of the framework) - this is not a separate plan altogether but one that integrates climate change in various government agencies' plans.

At present, the world is in a situation where climate change impacts cannot be stopped from unfolding, he concluded. He explained that in order to respond appropriately to climate change, it is necessary to bring about a profound shift away from a business- and profit-oriented approach in all aspects of society including energy, industry, international treaties, and most especially in agriculture. Likewise, he recommended that the world should pursue solutions with communities and other vulnerable sectors in mind and at the same time, adopt a paradigm that works in harmony with nature -- our source of food and life.

Mr. Saño called for national action in battling the adverse effects of climate change saying, "The solutions are in our hands. We cannot wait for international agreements to take action. We should protect our people and resources because these translate to protecting our future. More than being a biophysical issue, climate change is a social issue."

The Commissioner ended by urging everyone to be ready to hurdle our resistance to change old habits to triumph over climate change. We can survive it because to change is our only choice and our only chance, he emphasized.