Legarda Calls For More Investment In Green Technology

Senator Loren Legarda today underscored the important role climate finance institutions play in building low-carbon and sustainable infrastructure that will support the climate change mitigation targets of climate vulnerable nations such as the Philippines.

“Climate-vulnerable countries such as the Philippines fought to enshrine a 1.5 degrees Celsius global warming limit in the Paris Agreement not only to survive but also to thrive. We have to transition to clean energy-powered economies not just because it will save the climate but also because it will produce more jobs and pump prime the economy,” said Legarda.

Legarda, Chair of the Senate Committees on Climate Change and Finance, opened the V20 Asia-Pacific Regional Meeting hosted by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Cooperation of Ethiopia together with the Department of Finance, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance Program (DRFIP), which is a joint program of the World Bank Group and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Headquarters.

ADB projects that infrastructure needs in developing Asia and the Pacific will exceed 22.6 trillion dollars through 2030, or 1.5 trillion dollars per year, if the region is to maintain growth momentum. But the estimates rise to over 26 trillion dollars, or 1.7 trillion dollars per year, when climate change mitigation and adaptation costs are incorporated.

“Due to the increasingly dire threat posed by climate change, we need to upgrade everything including infrastructure, supply chains, urban services, logistics, food supply, and more. Here at ADB, we are reminded how crucial the international development system would be as we work to realize our vision of resilient, sustainable development,” the Senator stressed.

Legarda said that as chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Philippines has a unique opportunity to work even more closely with multilateral development banks and the international community to increase investments that will allow all our economies to become more resilient, more efficient, more inclusive, and more sustainable.

“Colleagues, our nations bear the brunt of climate change even if we are among those who contributed the least to the crisis. We know if the V20 does not remain ahead of the curve, pulling the world along with us, we will have no chance of seeing our 1.5 vision realized, especially in the current geopolitical climate. We need not only survive but also to thrive, and keeping within the 1.5 degrees Celsius global temperature limit is critical.”

“Working closely with our development partners, and with boldness, we can more rapidly de-risk investments even as we rapidly increase incentives that pull in the right kind of private sector capital towards climate-resilient, sustainable and inclusive plans that likewise contribute to the fight to keep warming within the 1.5 degree threshold,” Legarda concluded.

The Philippine Government, during its chairmanship of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), has taken an active role in initiating the establishment of the Vulnerable Twenty Group of Ministers of Finance or V20, a high-level policy dialogue and action group that hopes to address the critical challenge of climate change more assertively through innovative financing and technology.***