REFLECTIONS ON THE ROLE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION AND MITIGATION

by
Paula Bianca Reyes
BA Public Administration
National College of Public Administration and Governance
University of the Philippines-Diliman

Climate change represents the greatest environmental, social and economic failure the world has seen. Although we can say that by almost every measure, life is the easiest at present, we cannot deny the fact that climate change is happening faster, with larger impacts and bigger risks.

Public administration is a "field of inquiry with a diverse scope", of which the fundamental goal is to advance management and policies so that government can function (Rabin 1989). Through planning, budgeting, implementation and monitoring of different policies, the role of Public Administration in climate change adaptation and mitigation is becoming visible nowadays. It is concerned with the vital process of policy formulation and implementation. It is public demand that will create solutions. Through the different laws and policies created by our government, we are guided to take part in the transformation. According to James Meadowcroft, creating and implementing different public policies, institutions, plans and measures, shaped with effectiveness, efficiency and equity will promote mitigation of, and adaptation to, human induced climate change.

Presence of good leaders, officials and legislators will initiate good climate change governance. The government can do something like creating strategic policy frameworks, setting up governance innovations that would change the patterns of productions and consumptions and so as the development and deployment of technologies. Public Administration’s task is to build greater public awareness and understanding of the importance of climate change adaptation.

Public participation and responsiveness is very essential in addressing climate change. The government must educate the public about climate change and the consequences that we are all facing because of it. Public awareness must be present for all these to happen. Public administrators then begin to set up appropriate organizational responses- considering the national interest of the Philippines. There are many policy options for promoting climate change mitigation. The government has to analyze the most appropriate strategy and pursue most vigorously the measures that address the country’s economic, social and environmental goals.


For the very first time in the history, every country is faced with a common threat that is likely to trigger humanity and other forms of life and Public Administration has a significant role in climate change adaptation and mitigation.


*References:
Meadowcroft, James (2009). “Climate Change Governance.” World Bank Policy Policy Research Working Paper No. 4941.
Rabin, Eds Jack, Handbook of Public Administration. 1989: Marcel Dekker, NY. p. iii

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by
Karlo James Diaz
BA Public Administration
National College of Public Administration and Governance
University of the Philippines-Diliman

What is the role of Public Administration in climate change adaptation and mitigation? The question can be dissected into two parts. On one hand is the expression of the need for climate change adaptation and mitigation and on the other is the presentation of a subject capable of coordinating conformity and compliance to formulated and accepted methods on carrying both about.

With climate change, the very cycles in nature are disturbed and restructured. The general rule of thumbs is for its inhabitants to develop ways of either adapting to the changes or trying to minimize the rate of change and altogether preventing it or the mixture of both. How this would be uniformly imbibed throughout a locale becomes a point of concern.

The state is the instrument for which social order is derived and accepted norms are upheld. It is the organization obligated to deliver basic services to alleviate social ills and secure the welfare of its denizens whether to maintain the status quo or institutionalize deviations from a familiar pattern of living. It is the perfect device for the purposes of the advocacy.

Public Administration is how the implementation could be concretized and in order to survive this global threat that is climate change, it must be properly utilized stretching the imagination to its limits and using its concepts in the most beneficial manner. Governance for example requires the participation of the government, the private sector, and the civil society in a harmonized manner. Research in the sciences and technologies and the assimilation of values are necessary to reach the ends.

Concrete examples in this execution include the engaged commitment of leaders to the cause and creation of political bodies specifically designed for climate change adaptation and mitigation, shift of paradigm from using traditional energy sources to alternative sources of energy and putting a premium on using eco-friendly technology. It is important to stress that climate change is not a phantasm concept and that its dangers are serious and not just products of the minds of overly imaginative theoretical scientists.

Readily dismissed as a foregone conclusion, the inevitable increase in the earth’s temperature due to the continuing rise of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere warrants the shift in archetype of policies by the government through Public Administration in a two-pronged manner which is adaptation to the problem and efforts on its mitigation. Before reaching an international resolution regarding climate change which is a very tasking endeavor, nations within their selves must realize their own strategic policy framework with the interest of the people they serve in mind.