National Climate Risk Management Framework (2024)

Pursuant to Section 4, in relation to Section 9, of the Republic Act No. 9729, the Climate Change Act, as amended, the Climate Change Commission (CCC) is mandated to ensure the mainstreaming of climate change in national, sectoral and local development plans and programs. Corollary to this main mandate, Section 7 of RA 9729, as amended, provides for the Commission the following powers and functions:

• (k) Formulate and update guidelines for determining vulnerability to climate change impacts and adaptation assessments and facilitate the provision of technical assistance for their implementation and monitoring;
• (l) Coordinate with local government units (LGU’s) and private entities to address vulnerability to climate change impacts of regions, provinces, cities and municipalities; and,
• (m) Facilitate capacity building for local adaptation planning, implementation and monitoring of climate change initiatives in vulnerable and marginalized communities and areas;

Towards this end, the Commissioners approved Commission Resolution 2019-001 on 25 January 2019, entitled “A Resolution adopting the National Climate Risk Management Framework (NCRMF) to address intensifying adverse impacts of climate change”. It was deemed necessary for the country to harmonize and integrate various efforts of sectors and stakeholders on climate risk management, and to strengthen the country’s early action system in view of the increasing losses and damages from recurring extreme weather events.

It envisions a climate action planning system that is anchored on a unified and integrated science and risk-based approach through the presence of a strong risk database, information and analytics system accessible at the national and subnational levels. The Framework further recognizes the strategic direction of the rationalized planning system (RPS), advocating for harmonization among planning guidelines to the benefit of our local government units (LGUs).

The Resolution provides for the conduct of multi-sectoral, multi-stakeholder activities of national government agencies (NGAs), LGUs, academe and scientific community, private sector, civil society and other relevant stakeholders. The immediate conduct of a stocktake is further directed.

The same has been supported as the National Panel of Technical Experts (NPTE), the scientific advisory of the Commission, issued its position paper, urging the need to generate a nationwide climate risk assessment. The NPTE emphasized the need for datasets on Hazards (H), Exposure (E) and Vulnerability (V) to come together into a single platform for analysis, and the CCC is in the best position to gather and analyze these datasets and produce a baseline climate risk assessment at a city/municipal scale.

The NCRMF is expected to inform various plans (i.e. Philippine Development Plan, National Climate Change Action Plan including its seven thematic priorities, National Adaptation Plan, Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) and other sectoral plans), strategies, programs and activities in terms of appropriate beneficiaries targeting, as affected by various impacts of climate change.

Commission Resolution 2019-001 directs the conduct of the following major activities in a phased approach:

National stocktake of existing government actions at both national and local levels, which aims to review all available climate risk information, tools and methodologies to assess the gaps and needs, review the relevant issuances and publications (i.e. IPCC Special Reports, IPCC and Philippine Climate Change Assessment Reports), and arrive at a set of minimum acceptable standards for climate risk data and climate risk assessment methodologies, covering both deterministic and probabilistic approaches, and at the same time, those hazards that have cascading impacts and compounds risk. The review shall include among others the Climate and Disaster Risk Assessments (CDRA) mainstreamed in the planning process at the local level.

The National Stocktake envisions a multisectoral and multi-stakeholder engagement process, a whole-of-society approach in determining the needs of the country towards adaptation.

The National Stocktake will likewise entail intensive consultations among all relevant stakeholders—national government agencies, local government representatives, academe and scientific community, civil society organizations (CSOs) and private sector. Agencies and institutions will be invited to submit any information that will be substantial to the national stocktake, such as, but not limited to:

1. 1. Climate risk assessment methodologies;
   2. Vulnerability assessment methodologies;
   3. Participatory risk assessment/analysis methodologies;
   4. Sectoral risk studies (i.e. aligned with the NCCAP thematic priorities); and
   5. Reports containing local-level insights in the utilization of the various risk assessment methodologies in development planning processes.

2. Climate Risk Evaluation, which aims to establish risk profiles and risk ranking using the adopted standards for risk assessment to achieve the higher outcome of assessing and selecting appropriate options for policy and action. This phase will be heavy on data collection, processing and analysis, which will specifically conduct:

1. 1. Hazard, Exposure and Vulnerability Analysis (i.e. modelling and assessment)
   2. Exposure Database Construction and Maintenance
   3. Loss and Damage Database Construction and Maintenance
   4. Impact Assessment
   5. Consequence and Frequency Analysis
   6. Risk Analysis

Under this phase, risk management and data science agencies and institutions (i.e. agencies part of the Collective Strengthening on Community Awareness on Natural Disasters (CSCAND), Philippine Statistics Authority, Office of Civil Defense, academic institutions) will be closely involved. Aligning with the integration efforts of the government towards a systematic database system, the platform GeoRisk Philippines (GeoRiskPH) under the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) shall also be utilized and optimized for this purpose. Likewise, interoperability of various government database system shall govern the operationalization of this component.

3. Climate Risk Management Action Formulation, which aims to identify programs, projects or activities in response to the identified risks. Actions may be classified according to risk avoidance, risk reduction, or residual climate risk management. Corresponding to the PPAs, this phase will also ensure the enhancement of existing monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems for climate actions (i.e. climate change expenditure tagging, impact and/or results-based monitoring and evaluation), which will further enable a feedback loop to respond to the gaps and needs identified along the process and planning system. In this phase, the following activities will be conducted:

1. 1. Strategy Formulation and Mainstreaming Science and Risk-based Approach in the Planning System;
   2. Investments Programming and Implementation;
   3. Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E);
   4. Climate Change Budget and Expenditure tagging; and
   5. Results-based Monitoring and Evaluation/ Impact Evaluation.