MANILA, Philippines -- Promoting the use of fluorescent bulbs over incandescent lights and exhorting one to turn off the faucet while brushing teeth are no longer enough to address the global problem of climate change.

Bernarditas Muller, a senior negotiator of the Philippine government on climate change, stressed on Thursday that the government must train its attention on coming up with adaptation measures in relation to climate change.

"We must not concentrate on mitigation alone because we can no longer do anything [to stop] it. It is already there," she said at a news briefing on Thursday.

The press conference was part of a two-day convention-workshop called "Negotiators' and Community Development Practitioners' Engagement on Climate Change: Towards a Coherent National Policy Strategy on Climate Change."

Attended by government and non-government representatives, the convention was aimed at coming up with a consolidated national policy to address climate change.

Muller, who negotiated on behalf of the Philippines at the most recent Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Meeting of Parties of the Kyoto Protocol in Bali, Indonesia in 2000, was among the key speakers during the convention.

She stressed that addressing climate change was a collective effort, which must also dwell on adaptation.

Muller suggested that the government work for an efficient public transport system if it wanted Filipinos to cut back on its use of private cars to lessen greenhouse gas emissions.

She also noted that with the Philippines being surrounded by water, the government must seriously consider the zoning of flood-prone and coastal areas.

While she acknowledged the government's efforts to address the problem with the creation of the Presidential Task Force on Climate Change (PTFCC), it, however caused "confusion" in the overall climate change work in the country.

She noted that the Philippines was among the first countries to set up a national committee to tackle climate change, the Inter-Agency Committee on Climate Change, co-chaired by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Department of Science and Technology.

Elenita Daño, associate of the Third World Network-Philippines, an international organization focusing on environment, trade and agriculture, said that the PTFCC had yet to tackle adaptation measures in relation to climate change.

"Its focus is still on mitigation such as the shift from the use of incandescent to fluorescent bulbs," she said.

Daño said that the agricultural sector could adopt to climate change by promoting the planting of flood and drought-resistant seeds among farmers.

With the industries switching to the use of renewable energy, there was a need for the government to start re-training laborers for "green jobs," such as operating wind mills.

Muller added that the national policy to address climate change should focus on three important areas-- national communications, provision of new and additional financial resources and transfer of technology and capacity building.

She said developing countries like the Philippines must be more active in making known internationally its efforts in addressing climate change to dispel perception by developing countries that it was not doing its part in the global undertaking.

"The Philippines is doing something but we are just losing the media war. The Western countries have control of the media," lamented the senior advisor of the Department of Foreign Affairs.