PH PUSHES ADB-LED ASEAN INFO EXCHANGE ON CLIMATE ACTION

The Philippines is pushing for a regional information exchange on climate action, pitched to be overseen by the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB).

In a statement on Sunday, the Department of Finance (DOF) said Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, who chairs the Climate Change Commission (CCC), recently urged ADB to “spearhead an Asean-wide initiative that would enable member-countries of the regional organization to exchange information and best practices on localized climate adaptation and mitigation programs.”

“Climate change might be a global problem. The issue, however, exhibits itself most starkly in our smallest communities. I am sure that the ADB will be ready to help us promote the exchange of climate change action and adaptation practices among the Asean countries,” Dominguez said on June 3 when the Philippine government and ADB had an exchange of documents for two loan agreements.

One of ADB’s two newest loans for its host ountry was the $250-million financing for the Philippines’ climate change action program (subprogram 1)— the bank’s first-of-its-kind climate policy-based loan, making the country among the pioneers in climate-related development financing.

Dominguez said his proposal for an intra-Asean climate information exchange was “a better option than relying solely on international fora such as the annual United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP), which focuses on the big picture in tackling the climate crisis, and usually overlooks solutions tailor-fit for local communities.”

Following his attendance at last year’s COP26 in Glasgow in the United Kingdom, Dominguez had lamented that rich and industrialized countries who have been polluting the planet more remained slow in fulfilling their climate finance commitments to ease the burden from developing nations like the Philippines.

One of the countries considered to be the most vulnerable to climate change, the Philippines had ambitiously pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 75 percent by 2030 under the Paris Agreement.

Besides the ADB lending, the Philippines also tapped a 150-million euro loan from the French government’s aid arm Agence Française de Développement, for its climate change action program.