Typhoon-Hammered Philippines in 'Fight for Our Survival'

The Philippines has long experience coping with flooding and typhoons, including building warning and evacuation systems - but those measures may not be enough to cope with the worsening impacts of climate change, the country’s climate chief warned.

As powerful Typhoon Hagupit hammered the Philippines this weekend – the second year in a row the country has been battered by a major storm during the U.N. climate negotiations – the country’s negotiators called for a work plan to establish a “loss and damage” mechanism to help vulnerable countries deal with growing unavoidable losses.

Mary Ann Lucille Sering, secretary of the Philippines climate change commission, urged world leaders to respond to the increasingly costly and damaging impacts of global warming.

"Every year since 2008, typhoons have become the backdrop of the climate change conference,” Sering said.  That worsening weather means that a way of dealing with growing losses and damage must be part of a climate deal expected to be reached in 2015 in Paris, she said.

Typhoon Hagupit made its first landfall in Dolores town in eastern Samar on Saturday, following almost the same path taken by last year's Typhoon Haiyan.  The storm brought heavy rains, storm surges, flooding and landslides in densely populated areas of the country.

The Philippine government had already evacuated millions of people to higher ground. 

‘Beyond Our Capacity Already’

Sering said such heavy annual storms mean “the impacts of climate change are beyond our capacity already”.

“Our country’s experience makes our work here (in Lima) so much more meaningful, as this is no longer just a job for us but a fight for our survival and the future of our nation," she said.

"We hope that the Philippine experience, no matter how difficult, can help unite all nations to take more concrete actions on climate change,” Sering said.

“Loss and damage”, which became a prominent theme during the 2013 Warsaw climate change summit, refers to those impacts of climate change which cannot be avoided or adapted to, and therefore result in loss of life, livelihoods, ecosystems, cultures or potentially whole nations in the case of low lying island nations threatened by rising sea levels.

Read more at Typhoon-Hammered Philippines in 'Fight for Our Survival'