Ms. Perpilili Tiongson, OML Center associate director, provided an overview of the Center’s translation initiative, the eCCET Helper, during the Adaptation Futures 2020: Adaptation Decision-Support Tools and Platforms webinar last April 28, 2021. 

Organized by the World Adaptation Science Programme (WASP), an affiliate program under the UN Environment Programme and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the webinar is part of the WASP’s Science Policy Brief series which aims to help further the knowledge and capacity of researchers, policymakers, and practitioners in establishing effective adaptation to climate change. The webinar tackled the challenges associated with planning and delivering decision support resources with examples from Australia, India, US and the Philippines.

Developed by the Center with the help of partner local government units (LGUs) and in coordination with the Climate Change Commission (CCC), the Department of Budget Management (DBM), and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), the eCCET Helper, is a decision-support tool that aims to guide local planners in making climate-informed decisions in public planning and budgeting. 

The tool puts risk information at the forefront of planning, guiding planners through the Climate Change Expenditure Tagging (CCET) system of the government. The CCET is a budgeting tool established by the CCC, DBM, and DILG, encouraging national government agencies (NGAs) and LGUs to track climate expenditures using a common method for tagging based on the strategic priorities outlined in the National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP).

Ms. Tiongson explained that the eCCET Helper seeks to facilitate the tagging process by guiding users to first determine climate risks and impacts. The tool then provides prioritized typologies as planners identify the program or project to address the risks. 

The eCCET Helper is a product of the Center’s translation project entitled “Enhancing the CCET System with Climate Information”, which began in 2017, and aims to translate the key messages of the Philippine Climate Change Assessment (PhilCCA) Reports which were published in partnership with the CCC. Ms. Tiongson shared that the eCCET Helper is still in the early phase of planning and that the next steps include institutionalizing the use of the tool, tracking user’s capacities, and measuring ability to translate towards more climate-responsive plans. 

Joining Ms. Tiongson in the panel are Dr. Jean Palutikof, professor at the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility of Griffith University; Dr. Ned Gardiner, engagement manager of U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit; Dr. Ashish Chaturvedi, director for climate change and Mr. Kirtiman Awasthi, senior policy advisor at the GIZ; and Mr. Roger Street, honorary research associate at the Environment Change Institute of the University of Oxford.

Watch the recording of the livestream via the YouTube channel of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).

Ms. Tiongson will also be presenting the eCCET Helper at the “Exploring the Potential for Linking International and National Platforms in the Asia-Pacific Region” on June 30, the second of a two-day virtual knowledge exchange hosted by the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) in Japan. Visit WeAdapt.org for more information.