TUGUEGARAO CITY, Cagayan – Funded by the Korean Ministry of Environment (KME), the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Region 2 has developed a database from a project study for the inventory of greenhouse gasses in Region 2.
This will give a new perspective as to how the community should be concerned to the environment and help lawmakers in strategizing and crafting policies, projects and initiatives to reduce the emission of greenhouse gasses in Cagayan Valley.
“Very important itong study kasi meron siyang inventory system na nadevelop” said Mildred Maglaya, Supervising Economic Development Specialist and project leader of Cagayan Valley Greenhouse Gas Inventory towards Climate Change Mitigation and Low Carbon Development.
On September 2, Maglaya presented the findings of the study during the 14th Policy Consultation Forum of the Seoul Initiative Network on Green Growth by the KME at Bangkok, Thailand.
The project study, according to Maglaya, was conceptualized after NEDA R02 collected and presented information about the greenhouse gasses emitted at the Regional Government Center in Carig, Tuguegarao City.
NEDA R02 then submitted a proposal to the KME to get funding to conduct the project with the same concept of determining the greenhouse emission but in a much larger scale in the whole Region from 2015-2017.
After the approval of funds, the study ran only for a limited period from June, 2018 to June 2019 in all the provinces of Cagayan Valley expect for Batanes due to its location as an island.
A consultant from Korea was then sent in the region to help with the study and collect, and interpret the data before using it as variables in a formula in computing greenhouse gasses.
Key agencies who contributed with the data gathering were the Philippine Statistics Authority, Department of Energy, Land Transportation Office, Department of Agriculture, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Environmental Management Bureau, Local Government Units and Electric Cooperatives within the scope of the study.
Maglaya said they encountered problems in collecting some variables for the computation of the greenhouse gas during data gathering, so they used alternative methods for the calculation.
NEDA’s study found out that 54% of the total greenhouse gasses in the region comes from Isabela province followed by Cagayan with 30%, then Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino.
After the study is published, copies will be sent to local government units for them to use as a cheat sheet in crafting policies and initiatives in reducing greenhouse gasses.
Maglaya also added that they will be updating the database in 2021 for the 2018-2020 data as a part of a strategic plan for green growth.
