CCC Urges Banking Sector to Ramp Up Financing for Climate-Smart Projects
June 10, 2019 Monday
PASIG CITY 11 June 2019 – Highlighting the need to mobilize climate finance to enable the translation of the country’s climate goals and needs into action, the Climate Change Commission (CCC) urged financial institutions to provide innovative solutions and investment models that will spur financing on green, climate-smart, and sustainable projects during the Roundtable Dialogue on Climate Finance held recently at the Discovery Suites, Ortigas Center.
The dialogue organized by the CCC with the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat brought together senior representatives from the government, banking sector, private sector associations, multilateral and bilateral agencies involved in the mobilization and delivery of climate finance.
Discussions focused on the role of public finance and private sector investments in the implementation of the country’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the Paris Agreement, which is now being finalized through a whole-of-government-and-society approach being facilitated by the CCC.
Mr. Daniele Violetti, Director for Finance, Technology and Capacity Building of the UNFCCC Secretariat, emphasized that 2019 is a critical moment for countries to raise targets ahead of implementation starting 2020. “It is our last opportunity to enhance action in the pre-2020 period. It also hounds the roles of the new rounds of NDCs, making 2019 the year to ensure that these new or updated NDCs reflect the increased ambition needed to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement,” he said.
In urging financial institutions to ramp up financing for climate change adaptation and mitigation, Climate Change Secretary Emmanuel M. De Guzman said that the government is addressing the shortage of risk information in the country in order to de-risk investments.
“We are working on the establishment of a National Integrated Risk Information System, an integrated platform that will converge all available vulnerability and risk information in the country. This will be made accessible to all stakeholders, including the financial and private sector,” De Guzman said. “In addition to that, we are also assisting the Office of Civil Defense in developing loss and damage registry and protocols for valuation and validation, which could provide the insurance sector with a better picture of risk prevalence,” he added.
Climate Change Commissioner Rachel Herrera, National Focal Point to the Green Climate Fund (GCF), noted that climate finance is currently limited in terms of availability. “There is no other recourse but to be strategic in terms of funneling in climate finance from various sources and channeling them to those who need it the most,” she said.
Herrera said that the CCC, as the Philippine National Designated Authority (NDA) to the GCF, is seeking funding under the Readiness and Preparatory Support Program of the GCF to establish a monitoring and verification system of climate finance flows in the Philippines.
Herrera also shared that the GCF Technical Working Group, a group established by the CCC to review and assess the technical merits of the funding proposals submitted to the NDA, is now deliberating two multi-country funding proposals that aim to leverage GCF funds in order to attract more private sector investments through equity sharing and de-risking of renewable energy projects. “This is an indicator of the private sector confidence in investing in the Philippines for energy efficiency and renewable projects,” she said.
