By: Raydes B. Barcia
Legazpi City — In an effort to lessen the impact of climate change and to have scientific, evidence-based climate governance, the Climate Change Commission brought together various government agencies to tackle progress on the country’s national climate report.
As the lead agency in the monitoring and evaluating of national climate change programs and as the focal point for the Philippines’ communications to the UNFCCC, the CCC official said they should continue to work with various national government agencies to foster the finalization of the said reports.
The CCC gathered the national government agencies before the year ends in pursuit of scientific, evidence-based, and transparent climate governance where they tackled the progress of the country’s national climate reports.
Over 50 participants from 24 national government agencies attended the “Coordination and Update Meeting on National Climate Action Monitoring and Reporting,” which covered the three ongoing reports facilitated by CCC: first: National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP) 2017-2020 Monitoring Report; second; 2015 and 2020 National [GHG] Inventory Report (NIR); and third, the Philippine Biennial Update Report (BUR) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The NCCAP Monitoring 2017-2020 tracks the progress of the government in concretizing its outputs and outcomes under its seven thematic priorities: food security, water sufficiency, ecological and environmental stability, human security, climate-smart industries and services, sustainable energy, and knowledge and capacity development, in line with the Climate Change Act of 2009, as amended.
The Philippine BUR is one of three national reports to be submitted to the UNFCCC to assess global progress on climate commitments and mobilize the support needs of Parties.
“By presenting to all of you today the initiatives and efforts of the national government encapsulated in Climate Reports, we hope to provide a reflection of what we have done so far and how we can scale up our climate actions,” said CCC Deputy Executive Director Romell Antonio O. Cuenca, who welcomed the participants on behalf of Vice Chairperson and Executive Director Robert E.A. Borje.
The 2015 and 2020 NIR measure GHG emission levels to inform evidence-based mitigation policy and planning and is in line with the Philippine Greenhouse Gas Inventory Management and Reporting System (PGHGIMRS), issued under Executive Order No. 174 in 2014.
The implementation of National Climate Public Expenditures was also presented to encourage agencies to tag their climate programs.
Representatives from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Department of Energy (DOE), and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) also shared their methods and best practices for their respective submissions to the 2015 and 2020 National GHG Inventory Report.