CALOOCAN CITY, (PIA) -- The Climate Change Commission (CCC) and Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) have called on all local government units (LGUs) to submit their Local Climate Change Action Plans (LCCAPs) by the end of July 2021.

Republic Act No. 9729 mandates all LGUs, as frontline agencies in the formulation, planning, and implementation of climate change action plans, to increase the capacities of communities to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change.

With only 1,379 LGUs having submitted their LCCAPs, the DILG-Bureau of Local Government Development, in collaboration with the CCC, issued Memorandum Circular No. 2021-068 on 28 June 2021 enjoining all LGUs, as well as DILG offices, to update the CCC on the status of their LCCAPs.

Consistent with the provisions of RA 9729, the National Framework Strategy on Climate Change (NFSCC), the National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP), and the Local Government Code, the LCCAP will define the strategies of a community for strengthening local risk governance, enhancing rural livelihood, ensuring ecosystems integrity, and building cultural resilience, the CCC said.

Implementing LCCAPs will reduce disaster risks and will build the adaptive capacity and resilience of communities, especially the farmers, fisherfolk, and informal settler families living in danger areas that are the most vulnerable sectors of society to climate change impacts, it added.

As the Philippines is among the countries most vulnerable to climate risks, the national government, through the CCC and DILG, are committed to empower LGUs to adapt to the effects of climate change and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions through the rollout of capacity-building programs for enhanced LCCAPs, it further said.

Even in the midst of a pandemic, the CCC continuously delivers training for LGUs under its Communities for Resilience (CORE) Program, the agency’s flagship capacity building initiatives for local leaders and planners on mainstreaming climate change in local investment planning and processes.

Last year, the CCC successfully held a four-part Accelerated Climate Action and Transformation (ACT) Local Online Conference, an overarching partnership program for the delivery of its capacity building activities, to formalize a sustainable partnership among the national government, academe, and the private sector in providing technical and/or financial resources to LGUs on climate action.

Through ACT Local, relevant stakeholders were oriented on how to assist and contribute to efforts that will generate information, boost capacity development, promote cooperation and convergence, facilitate vertical and horizontal alignment for development planning, and access to climate financing windows toward climate resiliency.

For more information on the ACT Local and capacity building activities for LGUs, visit the website of the Climate Change Commission at climate.gov.ph. (CCC/PIA-NCR)