P4.8T eyed as bufferfor storm-prone nations

The Philippines, which is considered among the vulnerable coun­tries for rapid shift climate due to global warm­ing, can tap into $100 billion or P4.8 trillion a year in fund­ing for climate action proj­ects that multilateral funding agencies seek to put up under the United Nations’ Green Climate Fund (UNGCF).

Finance officials and spe­cialists from the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cam­bodia, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, and Nepal convened in Manila last week to tack­le speedier access to inter­national climate funding, in a follow up to the Mar­rakech climate negotiations.

In a declaration released last Wednesday, the eight countries agreed to “call for urgent climate action and support from the interna­tional community” and at the same time “mobilize all avail­able resources, including our own, to ensure that our do­mestic institutions can deliv­er climate finance far sooner and with far greater impact.”

The two-day meeting, which began last Tuesday, fo­cused on how national gov­ernments, banks, and com­panies can help each other solve the challenges of apply­ing for accreditation and ap­proval of UNGCF projects.

“We must now put cli­mate justice into action. We need to operationalize access to resources and deploy funds to communities that need it the most,” Climate Change Commission Secretary Em­manuel de Guzman said.

The countries also dis­cussed the mobilization of domestic climate funds, such as the People’s Survival Fund in the Philippines, now worth P2 billion, which recently ap­proved P120 million to support climate adaptation projects for Del Carmen, Surigao del Norte and Lanuza, Surigao del Sur.

Bangladesh also has its $1-billion (P48 billion) Climate Change Trust Fund that the country uses for both adapta­tion and mitigation projects.

“Asia’s developing coun­tries, the Philippines included, urgently need climate finance to protect their communities from the already-staggering loss of life as well as escalating damage to the region’s econo­mies,” Renato Redentor Con­stantino, Executive Director of the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC), said.

“Governments in the re­gion are eager to learn from one another how public and private institutions can most quickly and effective­ly leverage climate finance in pursuit of truly transfor­mational, climate-resilient development,” he added.

ICSC organized the cli­mate finance meeting in part­nership with the World Re­sources Institute, the German development agency Deut­sche Gesellschaft für Inter­nationale Zusammenarbeit or GIZ, and the United Na­tions Development Program.

Over 60 participants representing the finance de­partments, financial institu­tions, and other organiza­tions from eight countries participated in the event.

The Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities is a policy group in the Philip­pines promoting low-carbon development strategies, sus­tainable energy solutions and fair climate policy in vulnera­ble countries.