By Paula Bernasor
I
February 3, 2023
The WorldRiskIndex (WRI) measures countries’ disaster risk from extreme natural events and the effects of climate change. It calculates each nation’s exposure or the extent the population is exposed to disasters such as storms, flooding, droughts, and sea level rise; and vulnerability — or its susceptibility, ability to cope, and ability to adapt to these events. The Philippines scored high in its exposure, vulnerability, susceptibility, lack of coping capacities, and lack of adaptive capacities in the face of disasters.
Many of those countries determined most vulnerable to the most visible effects of climate change — drought, flooding, storms, or rising sea levels — are also countries where experts perceive high levels of corruption in public services. None of the 20 countries deemed most vulnerable to climate change score more than 3.6 on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), indicating significant risks of corruption.
There are more than 1,500 climate laws or policies globally. These laws and others relating to human rights, environmental protection, land use planning, corporate governance, and even financial regulation are powerful tools to change the system and protect our planet. But only if they are properly enforced.
To date, the Philippines already has the following:
The Philippines must deal with about 20 typhoons a year, some deadly and most destructive. In 2009, Typhoon Ketsana (locally known as Ondoy) obliterated 46,000 homes and left thousands stranded. Although the Climate Change Act is supposed to oversee building flood control defenses, the effective flood control system is allegedly suffering from neglect.
In addition, corruption in the granting of permits and licenses means that land development projects that do not meet building codes and zoning restrictions are nevertheless approved. In these cases, corruption has the potential to undermine adaptation efforts and puts lives at risk. We still have a long way to go in establishing transparency, participation, and accountability.
Transparency
Transparency is a characteristic of governments, companies, organizations, and individuals that are open to the clear disclosure of information, rules, plans, processes, and actions. As a principle, public officials, civil servants, the managers and directors of companies and organizations, and board trustees have a duty to act visibly, predictably, and understandably to promote participation and accountability.
Simply making information available is not sufficient to achieve transparency. Large amounts of raw information in the public domain may breed opacity rather than transparency. For that to be achieved, several qualifying criteria must be added to the definition.
Information should be managed and published so that it is:
Citizen participation
With empowered participation, stakeholders are invested in decision-making power and influence, such as having citizen representatives on boards that oversee local public service delivery.
Citizens may participate through local associations, social movements and campaigns, formal participatory governance spaces, and multiple approaches which employ several of these strategies. Participation is key to making transparency and accountability directly meaningful to citizens.
Accountability
For participation to be meaningful, there must be accountability.
Broadly speaking, accountability refers to the process of holding actors responsible for their actions. More specifically, it is the concept that individuals, agencies, and organizations (public, private, and civil society) are held responsible for executing their powers according to a certain standard (whether set mutually or not).
Accountability is an institutionalized (i.e. regular, established, accepted) relationship between different actors. One group of people/ organizations are held to account (accountees), by other groups (accounters). It is useful to think of an accountability relationship as having up to four sequential stages:
Most accountability sequences are not as formal, and/ or do not include all these stages. More informally, one can think of accountability as not only a set of institutional mechanisms or a checklist of procedures but an arena of challenge, contestation, and transformation.
To drive transformational change, three major building blocks need to be addressed simultaneously, which would translate increased transparency and participation into real accountability and would rebalance power relations:
Transparency and accountability play a critical role in rebalancing power and building trust through:
Governments have pledged at least US$100 billion per year by 2020 to be spent on projects and incentives to meet commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and safeguard against the effects of climate change. How well this money is used and how these measures are managed will determine the effectiveness of global efforts to combat climate change.
With so much at stake, it is imperative that all actors involved — governments, civil society, and the private sector — build transparency and accountability into the system from the start.
How can you contribute to boosting transparency, participation, and accountability?
If you cannot answer all these questions, it is time for you to reach out to your local leaders and ask them the same questions.
Transparency and accountability are not an end per se for climate change, but they are at the heart of the critical strategies. If we want to lessen the loss and damages, we need to push for more transparency, participation, and accountability in our community and the rest of the nation.
Paula Bernasor is the Visayas Coordinator of The Climate Reality Project Philippines. She is a Climate Reality Leader and mentor, chapter director for Startup Grind Cebu, and a volunteer for Project Sharklink and Thresher Shark Research and Conservation Project. She previously worked as an associate for partnerships for Rare Organization’s Fish Forever in the Philippines. She started Project Library in the Philippines, a grassroots movement that helps underprivileged communities in remote areas gain access to books and reading materials, as well as Ocean Love Philippines, which uses social media to spread awareness on pressing environmental issues and to promote a sustainable lifestyle and the circular economy.
ABOUT ELEVENTH HOUR
This article was originally published on The Climate Reality Project Philippines’ weekly column for the Manila Bulletin called Eleventh Hour.
This column serves a digital space to discuss our organization’s work on supporting the country’s just transition into a clean, affordable, and self-sufficient energy system; advancing sustainable urban mobility to highlight the issues of equity and democracy; and raising public awareness about the need to phase out single-use plastics. It also serves as a platform for Pinoy Climate Reality Leaders to share your stories, promote your climate initiatives, and provide critical insights to issues that matter to climate action, environmental protection, and sustainable development.