Drive vs single-use plastics gets UK help
THE United Kingdom (UK) offered to support the Climate Change Commission’s advocacy on banning single-use plastics.
In a recent virtual meeting with British Ambassador Daniel Pruce, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III welcomed UK’S offer of technical assistance and support in effectively communicating to the public the importance and long-term benefits to the economy of banning single-use plastics.
Pruce also said UK stands ready to assist the Philippines in its preparations for its contribution to the discussions in the 26th United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), which could encompass a broad range of issues such as green finance, energy transitions, and climate crisis resilience and adaptation strategies.
Chaired by the UK this year, COP26 will be held in Glasgow, Scotland this November. It is expected to bring together signatory-parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
In the same meeting, Finance Assistant Secretary Paola Alvarez also shared with Pruce that discussions are under way with the British Embassy on engaging with renewable energy (RE) investors to determine from them the possible Philippine policy gaps that need to be addressed to encourage the entry of RE investments to the country.
Alvarez, the point person of the Department of Finance (DOF) on climate crisis concerns, stressed the need to attract more RE investments into the country, especially given the government’s recent decision to impose a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants.
Alvarez said the discussions will be held with representatives from the DOF, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Department of Energy.
Apart from this, Dominguez and Pruce also discussed UK’S commitment to implement the first phase of its Iconic Bridges Project for Sustainable Socioeconomic Development in Cagayan province.
Dominguez also later met with Minister Anne-marie Trevelyan, the UK International Champion on Adaptation and Resilience for the COP26 Presidency and Minister of State (Minister for Business, Energy and Clean Growth), to discuss climate crisis-related concerns, particularly on sharing UK’S expertise in pushing Philippine legislation on plastics use reduction.
During the meeting with Trevelyan, Dominguez also said the Philippines will be participating in the Uk-led Adaptation Action Coalition, which will act as a forum for developed and developing economies to share knowledge and best practices on local, regional and global solutions to deal with the climate crisis.
The Coalition was built in response to UN Call for Action on Adaptation and Resilience and aims to turn the commitments secured from this call to action into on-theground support for climate crisisvulnerable communities.
Dominguez also separately met with Alok Sharma, the President of the COP26 and Member of the UK Parliament, to further explore areas of cooperation between the Philippines and the UK on raising the awareness of Filipinos over the urgency of climate action, and in fine-tuning the legislative measure that aims to ban singleuse plastics.
Sharma and Dominguez also briefly discussed how a “green industrial revolution” can give rise to new industries and create more jobs while effectively cutting carbon emissions.