A seat in climate body to enable wider Philippines financing

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines will take advantage of its seat in an international climate body to widen financing access for the country’s mitigation and adaptation efforts.

The Department of Finance (DOF) will represent the Philippines as the Philippines is formally inducted into the Board of Vulnerable 20 Group of Finance Ministers (V20) - Group of Seven (G7) Global Shield Against Climate Risks.

The Global Shield targets to provide and facilitate better pre-arranged protection against climate and disaster related risks for vulnerable countries such as the Philippines.

It also aims to give greater financial protection and more reliable disaster preparedness and response in a bid to effectively address losses and damage exacerbated by climate change.

“We will use this seat to further the interests of the Philippines,” Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said.

“This initiative will widen access to much-needed financial protection to make climate-vulnerable countries like the Philippines more resilient,” he said.

The Global Shield has about 270 million euros in funding as it targets to close protection gaps in climate-vulnerable countries using a toolbox of pre-arranged and trigger-based finance.

Diokno said the DOF intends to utilize existing assessments and prevailing coordination mechanisms, such as government-stakeholder consultations, the forthcoming National Adaptation Plan, and the national development planning process.

These would maximize current achievements and preliminary accomplishments already completed, and avoid the duplication of efforts, as well as ensure timely access to financing of needs and requirements.

As a grant facility, the focused tools under the Global Shield will also directly contribute to the overall climate and disaster risk management agenda and disaster risk financing and insurance strategy of the Philippines.

The 12-member board of Barbados, Fiji, Samoa, Uganda, Denmark, European Union, France, Ireland, the UK, and the Philippines is co-chaired by Ghana and Germany.