Ten years from now, the rice yield of the Philippines will drop from 50 percent to 70 percent if the government does not do anything about climate change adaptation, Senator Loren Legarda, chairperson of the Senate climate change committee, warned Wednesday.

Gerry Velasquez of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) also told various countries to meet head on the challenges of climate change as “the period of talking is now over — the time for action has begun.’’

Legarda’s and Velasquez’s warnings were lifted in summary and recommendations of the 2009 global assessment report (GAR) on disaster risk reduction by the UNISDR during a committee hearing at the banks of Marikina River in Barangay Nangka, Marikina City.

The river overflowed when the Sept. 26 storm ‘’Ondoy’’ dumped an unprecedented volumes of water, flooded not only in Marikina City but also the whole of Metro Manila and nearby provinces. Hundreds died and hundreds of millions of pesos worth of property were damaged or destroyed.

A week later, typhoon ‘’Pepeng’’ raked central and Northern Luzon, dumping heavy rains for days as it moved in circles around these areas, destroyed properties and claming lives.

Legarda, who has announced her intention to run for the vice presidency in the 2010 elections, said she would deliver a privilege speech when the Senate resumes regular session on Nov. 9 that would focus on the UN’s GAR findings and recommendations and would identify the government agencies that would be responsible for its compliance. Her privilege speech, according to Legarda, would include the GAR’s “Deadly Trio’’ on climate change which are poor urban governance; vulnerable rural livelihood; and ecosystem decline.

The GAR report said that extreme weather events like ‘’Ondoy’’ and “Pepeng’’ are consistent with the trend that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) identifies in its 4th Assessment Report (AR4).