Environmental economics

Iwas caught off guard when Nathanne Rafaelle, my 15-year-old granddaughter, asked me if I may be able to connect her with my friends whose company’s corporate service responsibility (CSR) is focused on the environment. This junior high student in Poveda is concerned about the growing incidents of death of whales and dolphins due to unceremonious throwing of plastics and other forms of garbage in our bodies of water. Thus, when her teacher asked her class to choose a topic for a group report, her team decided on environmental economics.

Preserving the environment through the non-use of plastics and nonbiodegradable materials now tops the CSR of companies – banks, financial institution to telecom firms, and even Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). The BSP recently collaborated with Maybank Foundation for a series of forums aimed at educating market movers and industry players for the advancement of the move to protect the environment and social and governance. Philippine Chief Executive Of- ficer Choong Wai Hong assured the commitment of MayBank through its foundation to promote and ensure good environmental, social, and governance practices.

Mother Earth has spoken. We’ve seen the degradation of the environment, its effect on climate in the name of progress. There is no need to look far to fully comprehend environmental economics. The country suffered from the series of typhoons, causing flooding and landslides, leaving scores of people dead and wounded. After each typhoon that visits us, tons of garbage, specifically plastic products, are washed ashore, necessitating cleaning-up of the rubbish.

Some plastics take hundreds of years to biodegrade. The preservation of the environment affects the development of the countryside, increasing economic activities and lifting living standards. It's only then that banks and financial institutions come in to service the financial needs of the community.

It may take a while to savor a return of investment from and environmental investment. But we have to start somewhere. It has to be a multi-sectoral collaboration – banks, financial institutions, corporations, and more, importantly, we, the people. One has to do away with the standard practice of pencil pushing on the timeline. Environmental investment has no target date. It is a never-ending process, a work in progress.

On a lighter note, I am sharing with you these two tidbits, gathered from my walls that has eyes of an eagle and ears of a tiger:

First: Guess who is this member of the official family of the Duterte administration who left in haste after a press conference on inflation without saying goodbye to his colleagues. Let’s call him Secretary #1. At the briefing, the role of the National Food Authority (NFA) relative to the tightness of rice supply was raised. As Secretary #1 explained, one of the other three secretaries (Cabinet Secretary #2) present wanted to interject but painstakingly waited. Cabinet secretary #2, who held the same post as Secretary #1 sometime ago, kept his cool but his facial expression said otherwise. When it was Cabinet Secretary #2’s time to speak, he rebutted the position taken by Secretary #1, saying that NFA’s mandate is to smoothen supply of the staple food to mitigate the heightened acceleration in the market price of rice. Cabinet Secretary #1 abruptly left as soon as the briefing ended. Soured?

Second: Bring your own rostrum. There was a series of economic briefings held a while ago. In one particular briefing, this economic manager brought his very own rostrum. Why? Because the rostrum available at the venue was engraved with the logo of the bureau under his supervision. On a positive note, he allowed his colleagues to use it as well.

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