CCC: Cooperate for quick climate change action

WITH only 51 National Adaptation Plan (NAP) submissions by developing countries as of the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference, increased support for adaptation planning and implementation is a critical priority.

Secretary Robert Borje of the Philippines’ Climate Change Commission (CCC) pointed out the need for close cooperation on global, subnational and national levels at the 25th meeting of the Adaptation Committee of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Bonn, Germany.

Serving as committee member representing non-Annex I countries, he shared their firsthand experiences in climate change adaptation. Borje is the first Filipino who has sat on the Adaptation Committee in the latter’s 14-year history. The CCC is the government’s lead policymaking body tasked to coordinate, monitor and evaluate government programs.

Immediate adaptation strategies include strengthening collaboration with UN and UNFCCC bodies, countries and other stakeholders; providing support in NAP formulation and implementation; offering technical assistance in adaptation reporting and monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning; and advancing strategic communications on adaptation.

He added that the need to double adaptation finance from 2019 levels and the gaps in adaptation financing, which need $387 billion in investments according to a UN Environment Program report, must be immediately addressed to support developing nations’ actions toward global climate resilience.

He said that strategic communications can “enhance our ways of communicating climate change and climate change adaptation … that would result in more holistic and inclusive climate action on the ground.”

Anchored on the recently adopted outcomes of the first global stocktake and the conclusion of the Glasgow-Sharm elSheikh Work Program on the Global Goal on Adaptation, the Adaptation Committee is a UNFCCC-constituted body that charts paths to enhance climate action and support, with a focus on particularly vulnerable and developing nations.