Cebu Pacific: Bright Skies for Every Juan

I recently talked to my friend and former co-worker in WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) Yeb Sano. He has recently been tasked to run the Apo Reef Adaptation project. Funding will be coming from the "Bright Skies" program of Cebu Pacific. The program actually allows sustainability conscious users help alleviate damage to the planet resulting from their travel. Specifically, a fee is charged per kg CO2 emitted by each passenger's travel. (Was a bit nostalgic, because I did the calculations for determine the fees when I was in WWF.) The money collected is donated to the WWF-Philippines for building the capabilities of specific ecosystems to adapt to climate change impacts. 

The 1st project to get this fund will be the Apo Reef - Sablayan area in Mindoro Occidental. In the past, temperature spikes have resulted in massive bleaching in areas like Apo Reef. Recently, typhoon-less storm surges have hit the area. As the impacts of Climate Change become more pronounced, the damage to this area would become irreversible. It is therefore critical that parts of the reef that have the best nutrient flow and biodiversity, regardless of past climate events be protected from human intervention. It is also critical that the community of Sablayan, be assisted to develop systems to minimize human and economic loss. Later on,  more adaptation sites will be beneficiaries for this fund.   More information at www.cebupacificair.com and at www.wwf.org.ph.

FMEA/Risk Assessments for Adaptation Planning

A lot of times nothing gets done because data is unavailable. I remember my experience in manufacturing, was that the factory bosses would be ticked off if nothing was done because data was unavailable. As engineers, we learned to assess risks. In the absence of data we would assume the worst case scenario and recommend actions around that. It meant shutting down production lines until bad material was identified and quarantined. In the same way, climate risk assessments ought to be done by local gov't units based on anecdotal or limited data available. These risk should be plotted in an FMEA (Failure Modes and Effects Analysis) table based on current knowledge. As new info comes,RPNs ( risk priority numbers) associated with each "failure" (in this case catastrophe) mode are modified to reflect current reality. RPNs are calculated based on Severity of Impact, Frequency and Early Detectability. With the use of RPNs, resources are properly managed to address vulnerabilities.