58
In 2018, 16.6 percent of the Philippine population already lived below the national
poverty line.276 This will continue to rise if the impacts of climate change are not
mitigated. An analysis released by the Asian Development Bank states that:
disasters can push non-poor households into poverty and the
poor even deeper into poverty. In terms of relative mobility, our
findings suggest that households that experienced typhoons are
more likely to fall into a lower income quantile than those who
didn’t experience typhoons. In terms of absolute mobility, the
incomes of households that were hit by typhoons are more likely
to grow more slowly than the incomes of households that were
not hit.These results are intuitive as disasters bring damage to life,
property, and livelihood. As these damages affect the households’
capacity to cope and recover, a disaster can push families into a
downward income spiral.277
The country’s poorest communities are especially vulnerable because of the
shortage of socio-economic resources necessary to cope with climate impacts. The
poor are more likely to forego food, health, or education in order to finance their
recovery from climate disasters.278
The loss of productive assets and livelihood is even more pronounced among farmers
and fisherfolk who are highly dependent on natural resources.279 The fisheries
sector, comprising about 70 percent of the Philippine population, “are considered
‘poorest of the poor’”.280 Marginalization, insecure housing, limited assets, high
costs of fishing equipment, and reliance on uncertain production systems all
contribute to the poverty of fisherfolk. This is exacerbated by climate change–the
underlying cause of a decline in marine capture and consequently, the decrease in
their income.281
276
277
278
279
280
281
Asian
Development
Bank,
Poverty
https://www.adb.org/countries/philippines/poverty.
Data:
Philippines,
available
at
Shikha Jha, Arturo Martinez, Pilipinas Quising, Zemma Ardaniel, & Limin Wang, Natural
Disasters, Public Spending, and Creative Destruction: A Case Study of the Philippines
(Asian Development Bank Institute Working Paper Series No. 817) (2018), available at
https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/408351/adbi-wp817.pdf.
Brian Walsh & Stephane Hallegatte, Measuring Natural Risks in the Philippines: Socioeconomic
Resilience and Wellbeing Losses (World Bank Group Policy Research Working Paper 8723)
(2019), available at http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/482401548966120315/pdf/
WPS8723.pdf.
World Bank, Getting a Grip, supra note 139, at 24.
Exhibit 4G, Mudjekeewis D. Santos, Impacts of Climate Change to Philippine Fisheries, May 2018.
IPCC, 2022: Summary for Policymakers [H.-O. Pörtner, D.C. Roberts, E.S. Poloczanska, K.
Mintenbeck, M. Tignor, A. Alegría, M. Craig, S. Langsdorf, S. Löschke, V. Möller, A. Okem (eds.)].
In: Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II
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