West urged vs climate change
THE Philippines is calling on Western economies to carry out the fight against climate change.
In particular, the country is urging them to significantly reduce their carbon footprints and make good on their commitments to extend the financing needed by climate-vulnerable countries to transition to a clean energy future.
During the 2021 Annual Meeting of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank held virtually, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd said Western economies are “largely responsible for the most greenhouse gas emissions.”
Dominguez also said he wants to see the decades-old discussions on how to fight climate change translated into concrete actions now.
“We need the Western countries to take responsibility for having contributed and continue to contribute the most to greenhouse gas emissions. They must be given the greater burden of paying for the grants, investments and subsidies needed for the most climate-vulnerable countries to mitigate the effects of global warming,” he added.
The Western countries, Dominguez said, have “avoided the pain by buying their way out of their global obligations,” which include offering developing nations money that are insufficient to make the carbon reductions that they themselves are unwilling to make in their own economies.
“Because of this, very little has been achieved in mitigating climate change,” he said.
The Philippines is yet to become a financial powerhouse but Dominguez said “we are determined to punch above our weight class in green and climate finance” so that it can lead in terms of mainstreaming climate change through the financial sector.
“Clearly, the Philippines is moving with urgency. But we have seen very little funding and actions promised by Western countries materialize. All that has been done is talk without concrete action,” he said.
To demonstrate how developing countries can mainstream climate change in the financial sector, Dominguez said the Philippines will showcase its Sustainable Finance Roadmap at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) to be held in Glasgow, Scotland next week.
This master plan also shows that the Philippines intends to be at the forefront of the global fight against climate change and remains true to its bold and ambitious commitment to the Paris Agreement to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 75 percent over the next decade even though it contributes only 0.3 percent to the planet’s total emissions.
“We are hitting the ground running with simultaneous initiatives to demonstrate that much can be done by clear and coherent financial policies that give primacy to the environment. We hope our Sustainable Finance Roadmap will inspire other developing countries toward adopting the appropriate finance policies that will help reduce carbon emissions,” said Dominguez.
The aforementioned roadmap synergizes public and private investments in green projects and sets the guiding principles that will create the environment for greener policies.