MANILA -- Philippine Climate Change Commissioner Naderev "Yeb" Saño said developed countries have yet to live up to their commitments under the climate change convention to help developing countries cope with the effects of climate change. However, Saño noted gains were made as UN members gathered in Warsaw, Poland for this year's climate change convention. In an interview with ANC on Thursday, Saño said another agreement was a Warsaw international mechanism that would account for the loss and impact of climate change and compensation. "We wanted developed or rich countries to tell us that they will provide a specific number towards the $100 billion 2020... We did not get that, but what we got out of Warsaw was a commitment from them that they will report the finance that they give every two years," he said. "We now have the Warsaw international mechanism on loss and damage. It will be effective immediately, and the first meeting will be in March of 2014," he continued. While there is no established scientific link between a single weather event like super typhoon "Yolanda" and climate change, he said trends suggest chaotic changes in weather patterns and their increasingly destructive impacts. "The trends show the Philippines now has more signal number 4 and category 5 typhoons. That is the indication in all of the computer models for climate change that in the future, because of warmer oceans which generate storms, we will have more intense tropical storms, and it may already be happening," Saño said. "Global warming may have fueled the strength of Yolanda... Based on actual measurements, the Philippine sea has had the highest rate of sea level rise in the last 20 years. It has risen around 6 inches in the last 20 years, pataas ng pataas. Six inches is not a joke. It could have contributed to the storm surge," he added. -- ANC
