The Department of Finance (DOF) is urging vulnerable countries to lead the fight versus climate change, and to demand rich nations to fulfill their pledge of providing the financing needed to accomplish this mission.
Carlos Dominguez, DOF secretary, in his statement at the opening of the Ministerial Dialogue of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) also urged climate-vulnerable countries, which include the Philippines, to work together in building a “global insurance safety net” that will enable them to access affordable financing arrangements, investments and technologies to reverse the devastating effects of climate change.
“Let us lead the charge now and show the rest of the global community how simultaneous and concerted actions can make a lasting impact in saving the only planet we have,” Dominguez said during the virtual CVF-Asia Regional Dialogue.
Co-hosted by the Philippines and Bangladesh, which chairs CVF, the three-day Asia Regional Dialogue aims to identify and promote headline climate change policy priorities for vulnerable developing countries of the region.
“We must now demand the wealthier countries to raise the financing to support the achievement” of the respective Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement of climate-vulnerable economies, Dominguez said.
NDCs embody the efforts of signatories to the Paris Agreement to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
“Those countries that contribute the most to greenhouse gas emissions must bear the greater burden for mitigating the planet’s warming. Those most vulnerable to the consequences of climate change should receive the most urgent support. These are the essential components of climate justice,” Dominguez said.
He added climate-vulnerable countries need to work together to come up with new financial frameworks in order to build a global insurance safety net.
“We should be able to devise a toolkit of innovative, responsive, affordable and accessible financial solutions to mitigate the adverse effects of climate events on vulnerable nations.
The toolkit should be able to assist the developing countries through financing arrangements, investments and technology transfers,” Dominguez said.
He said the discussion among developing nations facing the most severe consequences of global warming while bearing the least responsibility for the pollution caused by industrialization, underscores the inseparability of efforts to mitigate global warming and demand for climate justice.
Citing the Philippines as an example, Dominguez said the country contributes only about 3/10 of one percent to total global greenhouse gas emissions.
But as an archipelago sitting on both the typhoon belt and the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Philippines is most exposed to the adverse effects of climate change.
Taking these grim realities into account, Dominguez said the Philippines committed an ambitious NDC of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 75 percent over the next decade.
“This ambitious goal will require comprehensive policy changes and a whole-of-nation approach,” he said.
The DOF said included in this whole-of-nation approach is the push for the congressional passage of a bill that will ban single-use plastics, and an ongoing study on possible financing mechanisms to enable the government to improve the generating capacity of a hydropower plant in Mindanao.
A concomitant goal is to acquire and repurpose coal-fired power plants in Mindanao to shift most of its energy requirements to hydropower, and eventually spur investments from companies seeking to expand their operations in areas powered by clean energy, Dominguez said.
He added the board of the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. will also work on expanding the assets and crops it covers so that Filipino farmers can be given adequate financial protection from economic losses arising from climate change, while reinforcing the country’s risk and resilience efforts. – Angela Celis
