How is climate change affecting Quezon City?
Quezon City, like many dynamic urban centres, faces environmental challenges that are exacerbated by high population density, the urban heat island effect, and increasing resource demands. Given our expansive size, varied topography, and rapid pace of development, managing these impacts requires ever more complex and adaptive solutions.
Climate change is intensifying risks across the city. We are experiencing stronger and more frequent typhoons, heavier rainfall leading to severe flooding, and longer periods of extreme heat. In 2024, Typhoon Carina (international name: Typhoon Gaemi) affected over 80,000 individuals in Quezon City — a staggering figure eight times higher than our annual average of 10,000 affected individuals. Meanwhile, by March 2025, the heat index had already soared to 41°C and remained dangerously high throughout April, escalating health risks, especially for vulnerable populations.
Many low-income families reside in flood-prone, high-risk areas, while women, children, the elderly, and persons with disabilities often face greater barriers to disaster recovery and adaptation. For Quezon City, climate change is not just an environmental threat — it is a profound social equity challenge that demands urgent, inclusive, and sustained action.
What action are you taking to address climate change?
We have placed climate action at the very heart of our governance agenda, guided by a vision to build a liveable, green, and sustainable city for all.
In 2019, we declared a Climate Emergency, initially earmarking 13 per cent of the city’s annual budget for climate initiatives — a figure that has grown to over 19 per cent in 2024. This increasing investment reflects our unwavering political commitment to bold, science-based, and people-centred climate leadership.
Guided by this principle, Quezon City is delivering programmes with tangible, measurable impacts. For instance, we are transitioning the city’s free bus service, which caters to over 20 million riders annually, to electric vehicles and we are working to double the city’s parks and open spaces by 2030. We have also committed to solarize all viable city-owned buildings by 2030 and we support over 1,500 urban farms involving more than 40,000 urban farmers.
We also created the first dedicated local government department in the Philippines tasked with leading a whole-of-government, whole-of-society approach to climate action. With support from C40 Cities, Quezon City developed the first Paris Agreement-aligned local climate roadmap in the country. The goal is to achieve a 30 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050.
What are the benefits? Why is it important?
For Quezon City, climate action is not just an environmental imperative — it is a moral responsibility of leadership.
Our commitment is to secure a safer, healthier, and more equitable future for all residents. Climate action must improve lives, particularly for those most vulnerable to its impacts. Thus, our approach is firmly anchored in evidence-based governance, social equity, community empowerment, and a participatory design — bridging top-down policy with bottom-up engagement, ensuring that those most affected by climate change are not only heard but are active partners in shaping solutions.
At the heart of our initiatives is a simple but powerful belief: real resilience is community-led.
By centring climate action on social justice, transparency, and active citizenship, Quezon City is building not only a more sustainable city, but also a more inclusive, empowered, and resilient society — one that can meet the challenges of the climate crisis head-on and leave no one behind.