PH to press $100-B climate financing in COP26
As the Philippines joins the global climate talks in the Scottish city of Glasgow, the country’s delegation said it would demand that industrialized nations fulfill their promise to mobilize $100 billion in climate financing each year until 2025 to fund mitigation and adaptation measures in developing countries.
This is anticipated to be among the main negotiation points at the ongoing 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26).
The country’s 18-member delegation is led by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, who has committed to “demand greater accountability from Western countries that contribute and continue to contribute the most GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions.”
The majority of the delegation, however, is composed of finance and foreign affairs delegates, with only climate talks veteran Albert Magalang representing the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, where he is chief of the climate change division of the Environmental Management Bureau.
‘Big statement’
But environmental lawyer and another climate talks veteran Antonio La Viña says this is the first time two Cabinet secretaries are part of the delegation, with Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. also joining the COP26 talks.
“That’s very important,” La Viña said. “This is a big statement about our commitment.”
Article continues after this advertisementLocsin said: “This is the world’s last-ditch effort to save the planet … Succeeding COPs will be fine-tuning solutions or accelerating them.”
Article continues after this advertisementWhile the delegation noticeably does not have scientists or members of either the Climate Change Commission or the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration—two agencies that are traditionally present in the talks—La Viña said this was still a “good delegation” that could champion the country’s demands for climate justice and financing, which are among its priorities in the climate summit.
In 2009, the world’s wealthier nations pledged to raise $100 billion annually from 2020 to 2025 to help finance adaptation and mitigation efforts in vulnerable, developing countries like the Philippines.
Denise Fontanilla, associate for policy advocacy of environmental group Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities, stressed that financing was “a prerequisite to the climate emergency pact the world expects in Glasgow.”
With a new UN report warning of a 2.7-degree Celsius increase in global temperatures by 2030, La Viña said the Philippine delegation must lead the charge in holding developed nations to “make a commitment to be more ambitious.”
“Actually the $100 billion annually is not enough, it’s just a down payment for what we actually need,” he said. “But if they cannot even make that down payment now, how can we trust [them]?”
“We need to ask whether [rich nations] can deliver the $100 billion in a transparent, clear way, and not just as an empty pledge. We need to know where it would go and how countries can access this. That’s where our delegation can excel,” La Viña said.
‘Genuine climate action’
Dominguez, in a statement, said that he would champion climate justice and finance and participate in five priority goals, or “workstreams,” in COP26: common time frames for nationally determined contributions, or national targets for GHG reductions; adaptation; pertinent provisions of the 2015 Paris Agreement; sustainable finance; and technology transfer.
Environmentalists also urged the Philippine delegation to “support genuine climate action back home.”
“The Duterte administration still has time to put in place green recovery measures, … strengthen the coal moratorium announcement by actual cancellations of planned coal facilities, aim for 50 [percent] RE [renewable energy] by 2030, and protect and restore ecosystems to build resilience,” said Greenpeace Philippines campaigner Virginia Benosa-Llorin.
