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Abstract
Youth’s awareness on climate change must be considered in climate change adaptation in the country. According to Fernandez and Shaw (2013), youth’s awareness on climate change must be integrated even in the formulation of disaster risk reduction plan. This is necessary as the youths are among the marginalized sector of the society that bears much of the impacts of disasters (Gaillard & Pangilinan, 2010). Therefore, excluding them from the disaster risk reduction processes would threaten their safety from disasters and neglects a valuable resource for risk communication, education, advocacy, and action oriented risk reduction activities (Anderson, 2005). Likewise, they possess significant qualities which when tapped could serve as important resources for households and communities in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from disasters (Fernandez & Shaw, 2013). According to Peek (2008), youth’s knowledge, creativity, energy, enthusiasm, and social networks could be tapped in various phases of disaster risk reduction (DRR) processes to help themselves and others. For instance, Mitchell, Tanner, and Haynes (2009) observed that youths in the Philippines who are working with an NGO on community risk mapping and mitigation activities have much greater capacity to participate in DRR than many people assume. They further reported that these young people used their DRR knowledge to successfully persuade school officials and community planners to relocate their school, which was previously located in a high -risk landslide area to a safer ground.