Three departments under the Social Sciences cluster of the College of Arts and Sciences of Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan have collaborated with the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) and its international partner, German Watch for the Climate Compatible Development Program this year.
ICSC and German Watch aim to promote climate change mitigation and adaptation to emerging cities, such as Cagayan de Oro, to mitigate the impact of climate change.
Lisa Junghans, German Watch’s policy officer on climate impacts and adaptation, speaks with a participant during the first workshop for climate compatible development program. The program output will be presented to the candidates of the 2016 national and local elections for possible inclusion in their priority plans and platforms. (Photo by Jigo Racaza)
The two organizations are employing a bottom-up approach in addressing this concern at its source through multi-sectoral consultations and dialogues aimed at assessing existing and planned initiatives on this global concern.
The year-long program will study and aim to understand possible international financing needs and concerns of the city to list existing and planned initiatives of the local government unit, non-government organizations, commercial industries and academic institutions — to avoid any overlap or replication of initiatives.
For Cagayan de Oro, ICSC has chosen XU’s Social Sciences cluster as its official partner.
In its first stakeholders’ workshop held at VIP Hotel on September 24, Lisa Junghans, German Watch policy officer on climate impacts and adaptation, said they have started to work on urbanization and climate change, two major trends that are likely to shape how the world would look like in the future.
“The project objective is to help cities to actually make sure that the right action can take off from the ground,” Junghans said. “We need to finance for those cities, because adaptation and mitigation measures can’t be acquired from the sky; they need to be financed properly.”
The workshop drew community developers from the NGOs, businessmen and academicians from different educational institutions.
The second leg of the consultation is scheduled this October to validate the results collated from the first stakeholders’ workshop, and to share these findings to the members of coastal communities, lowland and hinterland barangays.
The third one is slated in January 2016, which will gather national agencies that are directly involved in climate change adaptation and mitigation.
The workshop outputs would be presented to candidates in the 2016 national and local election for possible inclusion in their respective plans and platforms.
The XU Economics, International Studies/History/Political Sciences and Sociology & Anthropology departments are collaborating with the project in line with XU’s mission of going beyond the borders and bring the science behind climate change to the communities.
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