Government spending for environmental protection declined by 7.3 percent to P23.83 billion last year from P25.72 billion in 2021, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
The Compendium of Philippine Environment Statistics (CPES) Component 6 released by the PSA showed the protection of biodiversity and landscape received the biggest share of 40 percent at P9.54 billion.
The amount was 3.6 percent lower than the P9.9 billion spent in 2021.
Environmental protection not elsewhere classified expenditures fell by 11.2 percent to P6.8 billion from P7.66 billion and accounted for the second largest share of 28.5 percent of the total government spending on environmental protection.
This was followed by waste management expenditure, which amounted to P3.66 billion or 15.4 percent. The amount decreased by 7.3 percent from P3.95 billion in 2021.
Spending for pollution abatement also fell by 18.3 percent to P2.81 billion from P3.44 billion for a share of 11.8 percent.
Expenditures for research and development on environmental protection slipped by 5.3 percent to P728.93 million from P769.47 million, followed by waste water management that accounted for the lowest share of the total government environmental protection expenditures last year with P298.51 million.
Likewise, the government’s climate change expenditure jumped 149.7 percent to P444.86 billion. Of the total amount, P341.35 billion went to adaptation efforts and P103.51 billion for mitigation.
In terms of the National Climate Change Action Plan’s strategic priorities, water sufficiency had the biggest share of 68.2 percent in total climate change expenditure last year with P303.48 billion.
This was followed by sustainable energy with P103.97 billion or 23.4 percent share and food security placed third with P19.88 billion or a 4.5 percent share.
Data from the PSA showed the number of students enrolled in environment-related education degree programs jumped by 19 percent to 28,784 last year from 24,194 in 2021.
Among the programs in the Philippine Standard Classification of Education, the environmental science degree program had the highest number of enrolled students at 11,911 last year, while environmental and sanitary engineering recorded the lowest number of enrolled students at 1,384.
Source: Philstar