Climate Factsheets | July 2022

NATIONAL ADAPTATION PLAN (NAP)

Planned Strategy for Development

● The Cancun Adaptation Framework established the national adaptation plan (NAP)
process in 2010, which sets the enabling environment for “Parties to formulate and
implement national adaptation plans (NAPs) as a means of identifying medium- and
long-term adaptation needs and developing and implementing strategies and
programmes to address those needs1.”

● The NAP is a “continuous, progressive and iterative process which follows a country-
driven, gender-sensitive, participatory and fully transparent approach2.”

● The intensifying and increasingly unpredictable behavior of climate hazards requires the
Philippines to rethink its approach to managing climate induced risks. It can no longer
rely on the autonomous responses of frontline communities to enable the country to
survive and thrive over the long term.

● It is, therefore, incumbent on the current Government to start formulating an Anticipatory

National Adaptation Plan (NAP) which will complement the Nationally Determined
Contribution (NDC) and address the impacts of climate change in the Philippines. The
NAP should span the same timeframe as the NDC, with milestones, especially on the
attainment of the socio-economic indicators complementing the former.

Strategies Towards NAP Development

● Pursuant to Republic Act No. 9729, otherwise known as the Climate Change Act of
2009, the Philippines, through the Climate Change Commission (CCC), formulated its
National Framework Strategy on Climate Change (NFSCC) 2010-2022 which serves as
the basis for a program for “climate change planning, research and development,
extension and monitoring of activities to protect vulnerable communities from the
adverse effects of climate change.” Subsequently, the National Climate Change Action
Plan (NCCAP) was approved in 2011 outlining the country’s agenda for adaptation and
mitigation from 2011-2028.

The Framework and the Plan guide the country to prioritize adaptation as the anchor
strategy, while mitigation actions serve as a function of adaptation3.

● There must be a clear and organized framework of action to enable systematic

characterization, including quantification of risks and impacts, in view of the vital
component of the NAP formulation process which is on “mainstreaming climate change
risk4”. This Framework was already prescribed in CCC Resolution no. 2019-001, which
1
https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/NAP-progress-publication-2020.pdf
2
Ibid.
3
https://niccdies.climate.gov.ph/files/documents/National%20Framework%20Strategy%20on%20Climate
%20Change%20-NFSCC-.pdf
4
https://unfccc.int/files/adaptation/cancun_adaptation_framework/application/pdf/
naptechguidelines_eng_high__res.pdf
 Climate Factsheets | July 2022

adopted the use of the National Climate Risk Management Framework (NCRMF)
anchored on the Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA)5 approach. This overall risk
management scheme is meant to generate consistent metrics and quantification of risks
pursuant to global standards. This enables comparability and lends the results well to
ranking which is very important and required for prioritization of areas and sectors for
risk/impact management in a cost effective, anticipatory manner.

● The NAP, anchoring from the NCRMF, will involve three (3) pillars:
a. Risk Assessment, through the conduct of a General National PRA process in the
nature of a scanning exercise (“National Risk Scanning”) which will flow
seamlessly to the
b. Risk Management Formulation; and
c. Anticipatory Adaptation Planning and Institutionalization.

● It is anticipated that the NCRMF and NAP processes will result to the following
milestones:
o Systematic technical support to national and local stakeholders in generating,
assessing, integrating, evaluating, and applying relevant climate risk data for
climate change/resilience actions, including action and support for technology
and innovation, capacity building, and resource mobilization, especially in
averting, avoiding, minimizing loss and damage due to climate change;
o Dedicated "one stop shop" for processing and conduct of related capacity
building on climate risk data for national and local actions, through a convergent
operational structure involving relevant NGAs, academe, civil society and other
non-government actors
o Reliable and interoperable climate risk data analytics, supported by convergent
climate data infrastructure for policy, planning, budgetary, legislative, and other
development interventions across sectors and levels of governance

● The NAP will comprise of the sub-elements, namely the sectoral, sub-national
(regional) and local plans, which will constitute the bottom-up process for producing
and aggregating the inputs for the NAP.

A top-down approach will also be employed to guide and countercheck the consolidated
sectoral/sub-national and local planning results. As with the NDC, the First NAP should be in
Road Map form (2021-2050), with the required background information and data constituting
the rationale and methodology for the setting of periodic quantitative targets from current
(2021) to 2050. The NAP will have the same function as the NDC of influencing the relevant
national, sub-national and local plan for a cohesive whole.

WAYS FORWARD

5
The standard framework for the conduct of the Risk Analysis, the results of which will be the basis for the
NAP,
 Climate Factsheets | July 2022

1. The NFSCC and NCCAP are due for revisiting and updating, to incorporate evidence
and learnings from past experiences, as well as adhere to recent, best available
science in view of the New Normal and need to undertake urgent actions as
prompted by the recently released Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The NCRMF should also be
incorporated into the Framework, further reiterating the strategic guidance to go
beyond “Build Back Better and Build Forward Better”, thus “Build Right at First Sight.”

2. Establish dedicated NAP Steering Committee to orchestrate the procedures and

policies, subject to necessary for its mobilization and institutionalization, as among
the long-term adaptation plans of the country.

3. Fast-track the conduct of the stocktake, strategic action planning with NPTE on the
top 10 climate-induced risks, and national climate risk assessment groundwork

4. Access financial and technical support and assistance for the NAP development,
including among others, GCF Readiness Funds