PH, EU ink pact to strengthen disasters, climate change resilience

The Philippines and the European Union (EU) have officially launched the National Copernicus Capacity Support Action Program for the Philippines (CopPhil) to strengthen resilience to natural disasters and climate change.

In a taped report, DOST Secretary Fortunato “Boy” de la Peña said CopPhil will utilize a P590 million grant from the EU and will be mainly implemented by the DOST and the Philippine Space Agency, in collaboration with the European Science Agency.

“CoPhil specifically aims to secure the integrity of the natural ecosystem, livelihoods, and population against natural hazards and climate change-related threats and strengthen the timely and accurate use of information derived from the Copernicus Earth Observation Data for decision-making and monitoring of policy implementation,” de la Peña said.

“It is designed to address technical and infrastructure needs for enhanced satellites and ground-based data acquisition and processing, information sharing, and application development which are critical for evidence-based policy and decision making in response to disasters,” he added.

The program will support the Philippine Government’s objectives of developing and leveraging space science and technology applications to strengthen the nation’s resilience to natural disasters and climate change.

CoPhil is also expected to contribute to the effective management of the environment and the natural resources of the Philippine ecosystems and improve the resilience of all livelihoods against natural hazards and climate change-related threats.

Author:Gabriela Baron