People's Survival Fund Board OKs P99 million for climate vulnerability projects
The People's Survival Fund (PSF) Board, led by members of the government's economic team, has approved P99.675-million worth of grant resources for five new projects across the country seen to help local governments address climate vulnerability.
In its meeting on July 18, the PSF Board approved two full projects, and three project development grants. The PSF was created to supplement the annual appropriations allocated by government agencies and local government units for climate-change related programs and projects.
The biggest funding will be P86.162 million for reforestation and climate smart infrastructure initiatives in Pandan, Catanduanes, seen to address the municipality's vulnerability to storm surges and drought.
These include a Mangrove EcoShield component that will reforest 10 hectares of forest in six barangay beneficiaries, along with a mangrove nursery that will be established in Barangay Balagñonan to support the livelihood of around 519 individuals from 10 fisherfolk associations and five multi-sectoral associations.
Another project is the Climate-Smart Infrastructure Support for Agriculture (CSISA), which seeks to reduce reliance on external vegetable sources, and provide support to around 774 members of 15 farmers associations, and five multi-sectoral associations hit by drought.
Another fully-funded project will be a P7.513-million reforestation project in Tagum, Davao del Norte, which includes the restoration of 55 hectares or 57% of open and degraded mangrove ecosystems in barangays Busaon, Liboganon, Madaum, San Isidro, and Bingcungan.
Calamity early warning systems (EWS) will also be installed in the flood-prone barangays of Apokon, Canocotan, Madaum, and San Miguel, with around 36,084 households.
Project development grants worth P2 million each were likewise approved to help project proponents develop comprehensive proposals, including one for Basay, Negros Oriental that will support the proposal development of a rehabilitation and conservation project involving the Basay River and Watershed.
Also approved were those for Claver, Surigao del Norte involving an approach to address rising water levels and storm surges through nature-based solutions, and for Rizal, Kalinga involving the construction of irrigation networks to help address the impact of drought on agricultural productivity.
The PSF Board is chaired by the Department of Finance Secretary, and counts as members the vice chairperson of the Climate Change Commission, the Budget Secretary, the Department of Economy, Planning, and Development Director-General, the Interior Secretary, the chairperson of the Philippine Commission on Women, and representatives from the academe, the business sector, and non-government organizations (NGOs).
According to the Department of Finance (DOF), the PSF Board has approved P1.421-billion worth of resources for a total of 21 local climate adaptation projects and project developments to date. — BM, GMA Integrated News
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
15 minutes ago
- Yahoo
2025 Tour de France: Tadej Pogačar wins race for 2nd consecutive year as Wout van Aert wins Stage 21
Slovenian cyclist Tadej Pogačar has won the 2025 Tour de France, earning the championship for the second consecutive year and fourth time in his career. Wout van Aert won the final day of the race, finishing first through a difficult Stage 21 that was paused with 50 kilometers to go and the times frozen due to dangerously slippery road conditions as the cyclists navigated the Butte Montmartre. That took any suspense or competitive element out of the final stage's last stretch, but provided another demonstration at what a difficult ordeal completing this race is. "Great from the organisers to neutralise the GC times so nobody had to risk anything," Pogačar said from the winner's podium, via The Guardian. "But I gave it a go. Wout was incredibly strong at the top of the climb and he deserves this big, big win." Pogačar had a comfortable lead of 4 minutes, 24 seconds over Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard, who won the 2022 and 2023 races. He had to cross the finish line to officially be declared the winner of the 112th Tour de France, but still raced as if he could lose the race toward the end, finishing among the last six. With four Tour de France championships, Pogačar ties British cyclist Chris Froome for second among all-time wins. Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain have each won the race five times. Here are the final standings with the top 10 finishers for the 112th racing of the Tour de France: Tadej Pogačar, Slovenia: 76 hours, 0 minutes, 32 seconds Jonas Vingegaard, Denmark: 76:04.56 (4 minutes, 24 seconds behind) Florian Lipowitz, Germany: 76:11.32 (11 minutes behind) Oscar Onley, Great Britain: 76:12.44 (12 minutes, 12 seconds behind) Felix Gall, Austria: 76:17.44 (17 minutes, 12 seconds behind) Tobias Johannessen, Norway: 76:20.46 (20 minutes, 14 seconds behind) Kevin Vauquelin, France: 76:23.07 (22 minutes, 35 seconds behind) Primoz Roglic, Slovenia: 76:26.02 (25 minutes, 30 seconds behind) Ben Healy, Ireland: 76:28.34 (28 minutes, 2 seconds behind) Jordan Jégat, France: 76:33.14 (32 minutes, 32 seconds behind) The victory for Pogačar, 26, was his fourth Tour de France championship. He also earned consecutive Coupe Omnisports trophies in 2020 and 2021, prior to Vingegaard's two straight wins. Last year's Tour de France victory made him only the third male cyclist in history to win the Triple Crown of Cycling, also finishing first in the Giro and the World Championships during the same year.
Yahoo
15 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Analysis-Out-gunned Europe accepts least-worst US trade deal
By Mark John LONDON (Reuters) -In the end, Europe found it lacked the leverage to pull Donald Trump's America into a trade pact on its terms and so has signed up to a deal it can just about stomach - albeit one that is clearly skewed in the U.S.'s favour. As such, Sunday's agreement on a blanket 15% tariff after a months-long stand-off is a reality check on the aspirations of the 27-country European Union to become an economic power able to stand up to the likes of the United States or China. The cold shower is all the more bracing given that the EU has long portrayed itself as an export superpower and champion of rules-based commerce for the benefit both of its own soft power and the global economy as a whole. For sure, the new tariff that will now be applied is a lot more digestible than the 30% "reciprocal" tariff which Trump threatened to invoke in a few days. While it should ensure Europe avoids recession, it will likely keep its economy in the doldrums: it sits somewhere between two tariff scenarios the European Central Bank last month forecast would mean 0.5-0.9% economic growth this year compared to just over 1% in a trade tension-free environment. But this is nonetheless a landing point that would have been scarcely imaginable only months ago in the pre-Trump 2.0 era, when the EU along with much of the world could count on U.S. tariffs averaging out at around 1.5%. Even when Britain agreed a baseline tariff of 10% with the United States back in May, EU officials were adamant they could do better and - convinced the bloc had the economic heft to square up to Trump - pushed for a "zero-for-zero" tariff pact. It took a few weeks of fruitless talks with their U.S. counterparts for the Europeans to accept that 10% was the best they could get and a few weeks more to take the same 15% baseline which the United States agreed with Japan last week. "The EU does not have more leverage than the U.S., and the Trump administration is not rushing things," said one senior official in a European capital who was being briefed on last week's negotiations as they closed in around the 15% level. That official and others pointed to the pressure from Europe's export-oriented businesses to clinch a deal and so ease the levels of uncertainty starting to hit businesses from Finland's Nokia to Swedish steelmaker SSAB. "We were dealt a bad hand. This deal is the best possible play under the circumstances," said one EU diplomat. "Recent months have clearly shown how damaging uncertainty in global trade is for European businesses." NOW WHAT? That imbalance - or what the trade negotiators have been calling "asymmetry" - is manifest in the final deal. Not only is it expected that the EU will now call off any retaliation and remain open to U.S. goods on existing terms, but it has also pledged $600 billion of investment in the United States. The time-frame for that remains undefined, as do other details of the accord for now. As talks unfolded, it became clear that the EU came to the conclusion it had more to lose from all-out confrontation. The retaliatory measures it threatened totalled some 93 billion euros - less than half its U.S. goods trade surplus of nearly 200 billion euros. True, a growing number of EU capitals were also ready to envisage wide-ranging anti-coercion measures that would have allowed the bloc to target the services trade in which the United States had a surplus of some $75 billion last year. But even then, there was no clear majority for targeting the U.S. digital services which European citizens enjoy and for which there are scant homegrown alternatives - from Netflix to Uber to Microsoft cloud services. It remains to be seen whether this will encourage European leaders to accelerate the economic reforms and diversification of trading allies to which they have long paid lip service but which have been held back by national divisions. Describing the deal as a painful compromise that was an "existential threat" for many of its members, Germany's BGA wholesale and export association said it was time for Europe to reduce its reliance on its biggest trading partner. "Let's look on the past months as a wake-up call," said BGA President Dirk Jandura. "Europe must now prepare itself strategically for the future - we need new trade deals with the biggest industrial powers of the world." (Additional reporting by Jan Strupczewski in Brussels; Christian Kraemer and Maria Martinez in Berlin; Writing by Mark John; Editing by Nick Zieminski) Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
15 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Women's Euro: England crowned European champions
England crowned European champions The Women's Euro delivered its verdict on the evening of Sunday, July 27, 2025. England have been crowned European champions, overcoming Spain in the final. Just like the last Euro final and the World Cup, England (the European champions) and Spain (the world champions) faced off in this blockbuster Women's Euro final—a true clash at the pinnacle of women's football. Spain lived up to their billing by taking the lead in the first half. It was Caldentey who broke the deadlock before the half-hour mark (25', 1-0). In the second half, England found their answer. Russo netted the equalizer (57', 1-1). With the score level at full time, the match headed into extra time. But once again, neither side could find the breakthrough, and it all came down to the nerve-wracking penalty shootout. In this ultimate test, Mead and Williamson missed their spot-kicks for England, while three Spaniards faltered: Caldentey, Bonmati, and Paralluelo.
