Submission in Support of Petitioners Case No. CHR-NI-2016-0001 during the southwest monsoon season and the transition from the southwest to northeast monsoon season, increasing the risk of flooding and landslides in these areas.19 Throughout the country, there are projected increases in both heavy rainfall days (days with rainfall exceeding 300 mm) and dry days (less than 2.5 mm rainfall).20 The intensity of these extreme weather events is also projected to increase, resulting in an increased risk of both floods and droughts.21 3. Sea level rise Scientists predict that global mean sea levels will rise by 0.17–0.38 meters by the mid-century (2046-2065) and by 0.26–0.82 meters by the end of the century (2081-2100), as compared with a 1986-2005 baseline.22 Costal systems and lowlying areas will increasingly experience adverse impacts such as submergence, flooding, erosion, and saltwater intrusion as a result of projected sea level rise. Increases in precipitation and coastal storms will contribute to these harmful impacts. In the Philippines, sea levels are rising much more quickly than the global average, due in part to subsidence along the shoreline. Based on satellite measurements taken from 2002 through 2014, sea levels along the Philippines coastline increased by 14.7 ± 4.4 mm per year – more than five times the global average (2.74 ± 0.58 mm per year).23 The University of the Philippines, Los Baños Climate Change Program conducted a study of how sea level rise would affect the Philippines based on earlier estimates that sea levels were increasing at three times the global average, and found that this rate of sea level rise would lead to the inundation of more than 167,000 hectares of coastland (about 0.6% of the country’s total area) and 171 towns, as well as the displacement of 13.6 million 19 Id. at 25, 27. See also A. YUSUF & H. FRANCISCO, HOTSPOTS! MAPPING CLIMATE CHANGE VULNERABILITY IN SOUTHEAST ASIA (2010) (finding that the Philippines is particularly vulnerable to floods and landslides). 20 PAGASA (2011), supra note 10, at 27. 21 J.M. Pulhin & M.A. Tapia, Integrating Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation: Initiatives and Challenges in the Philippines, Ch. 11 in CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION AND DISASTER RISK REDUCTION: AN ASIAN PERSPECTIVE (R. Shaw et al. eds., 2010). 22 IPCC, CLIMATE CHANGE 2013: THE TECHNICAL SCIENCE BASIS, WORKING GROUP I CONTRIBUTION TO THE FIFTH ASSESSMENT REPORT OF THE INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE (Thomas Stocker et al. eds., Cambridge University Press 2013) at 90 (hereinafter “IPCC WGI”). 23 Roelof Rietbroek, Revisiting the Contemporary Sea-level Budget on Global and Regional Scales, 113(6) PNAS 1504 (2016). Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, Columbia Law School 7