A Career Diplomat with nearly two (2) decades in government service, Secretary Robert E.A. Borje is the Vice Chairperson and Executive Director of the Climate Change Commission, the Philippines’ lead policy-making body on climate change.
He is the National Focal Point to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), heading and handling various negotiation workstreams that include adaptation, mitigation, and climate finance.
He has served as Head of the Philippine Delegation to UNFCCC Subsidiary Bodies meetings and International Seabed Authority General Assembly.
In December 2023, the UNFCCC Secretariat appointed him member of the Adaptation Committee, representing developing nations and making him the first Filipino to join the Committee in its 14-year history.
He was elected Co-Chair of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Inclusive Forum on Carbon Mitigation Approaches in 2023 for a term of three (3) years.
His foreign postings include the Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C. and the Philippines’ Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York.
He was a fellow at the Rhodes Academy of Oceans Law and Policy in Greece and attended the Clingendael Netherlands Institute of International Relations in The Hague and the International Institute of Humanitarian Law in Sanremo, Italy.
Secretary Borje is a recipient of three (3) Presidential awards for outstanding and exemplary service: the Orden ng Lakandula (Ranggong Pinuno) and the Gawad Mabini (Ranggong Dakilang Kasugo) in 2007, and the Gawad Mabini with the Rank of Grand Cross (Dakilang Kamanong) in 2021.
He is the son of retired Admiral Adolf P. Borje of San Fernando, La Union and Barangay Captain Eleanor Alabado of Koronadal City, South Cotabato and is proud to be “tubong probinsyano”.