2. An ice age is a long period of reduction in the
temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere,
resulting in the presence or expansion of
continental and polar ice sheets and alpine
glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice
ages, and greenhouse periods during which
there are no glaciers on the planet.
3. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change is an intergovernmental body of the
United Nations. Its job is to advance scientific
knowledge about climate change caused by
human activities. The World Meteorological
Organization and the United Nations
Environment Programme established the IPCC
in 1988.
4. Global climate change is not a future problem.
Changes to Earth’s climate driven by increased
human emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse
gases are already having widespread effects on the
environment: glaciers and ice sheets are shrinking,
river and lake ice is breaking up earlier, plant and
animal geographic ranges are shifting, and plants
and trees are blooming sooner.
Effects that scientists had long predicted would
result from global climate change are now
occurring, such as sea ice loss, accelerated sea level
rise, and longer, more intense heat waves.
5. The Philippines are particularly vulnerable to
climate change, which is threatening to hamper
attainment of the MDGs. This Joint Programme's
goal was to improve the country's capacity to plan
and implement projects to mitigate the impact of
climate change, with a focus on the most disaster-
prone eastern seaboard.
The programme brought together eight UN
agencies, the Interagency Committee on Climate
Change, donors and other partners over a period
of more than three years to complete the country’s
knowledge base and strengthen institutional
capacities to manage climate change risks.
6. tural hazards in the world and widely recognized that global
climate change is exacerbating the natural hazards that threaten
the country. The impacts of climate change are expected to be
more severe, with sea level rise, more intense rainfall events (thus
more floods and landslides), longer dry spells and stronger
moonsoon rainfall variability to have important implications for
water resources, agriculture, forestry, coastal areas, public health
and human settlement. Increasing climatic variability and more
frequent extreme weather events will have serious consequences
for the entire nation, as demonstrated by the high costs of recent
extreme weather events and related disasters. Along with the
ongoing initiatives on climate change adaptation (CCA), this
project would focus on developing practical examples and
methodologies that demonstrate the benefits of mainstreaming
CCA to enable targeted communities to adapt to potential impacts
of climate variability and change through the projects' objectives.
7. Developing and demonstrating approaches that
would enable targeted communities to adapt to the
potential impacts of climate variability and change.
This would be achieved by strengthening existing
institutional frameworks for climate change
adaptation, and by demonstration of cost-effective
adaptation strategies in agriculture and natural
resources management. The Philippine Climate
Change Adaptation Project (PhilCCAP) has the
objective of increasing communities' adaptive capacity
by improving: farm management capability under
conditions of climate risk; access to information on
weather forecasting and climate patterns; access to
risk management options such as weather index
insurance; and the strengthening of ecosystems.
