Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad said the administration needs to set aside P132 billion from the 2016 national budget to fund programs that seek to boost the resilience of vulnerable communities amid threats of the impact of climate change.
This is based on the ongoing audit of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the World Bank. With this, the DBM has tagged P132 billion worth of projects for climate-change expenditures under the proposed P3.002- trillion budget for 2016.
The tagging project is part of the calls made by finance ministers of the Vulnerable Twenty (V20) group of countries that seeks to mobilize funds for a global response to climate change. The Philippines leads the V20 group that represents nations facing the highest risks from climate-change impact. The conclusions of the V20 meeting last week in Peru will be raised at the Conference of the Parties 21 (COP21) Climate Conference in Paris.
“The amount of P132 billion for climate expenditures is a huge investment, but we have been working on increasing the budget to address climate change since 2011. More important, the 2016 budget builds on the lessons of Typhoon Yolanda, as well as focusing on climate-change adaptation. This prioritization reflects the national government’s major support for enhancing disaster preparedness and resilience in vulnerable communities,” Abad said.
The bulk of the tagged P132-billion resiliency fund, or 72.2 percent, will be used to fund flood-control projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
He said the funds will cover construction of flood-control facilities covering 18 major river basins and principal rivers and watersheds by the DPWH, costing P59.8 billion.
The DBM and the World Bank also tagged reforestation of 1.5 million hectares under the climate expenditures. The project will cost P10.2 billion under the six-year National Greening Program of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
Other tagged projects include the P12.9-billion farm-to-market roads under the Department of Agriculture.
The budget chief said the tagging of climate expenditures in the 2016 budget makes it easier for the national government to identify them, ensuring their transparency and enhancing their effectiveness.
The National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said the Philippines is keen on supporting a legally binding accord on climate change.
Neda Director General and Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said achieving the recently approved Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) would be impossible without a global agreement on climate change.
The COP21 will take place in Paris, France, from November 30 to December 11. The event aims to create a new global agenda on climate change.
“As president of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, and as one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, we will also work in the upcoming Paris conference to ensure that we adopt a new legally binding climate agreement that is universal and equitable,” Balisacan said.
Addressing the need for adaptation and mitigation measures for climate change has been included as Goal 13 of the 17 SDGs.
Under Goal 13, countries must strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate hazards and natural disasters, as well as integrate climate-change measures into national policies, strategies and planning.
The goal also aims to improve education, raise awareness, and improve human and institutional capacity on climate-change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning.
The last target has two sub-targets, mobilizing $100 billion annually by 2020 from all sources to address the needs of developing countries for mitigation actions and operationalize the Green Climate Fund, as well as promote mechanisms to raise capacity for climate change-related planning in least-developed countries, women, youth and local and marginalized communities.
For the Philippines, Balisacan emphasized the need to put in place climate-change adaptation and mitigation measures, particularly at the local levels, and increase investments toward a climate-resilient economy.
“We have seen extreme
weather disturbances occurring with greater frequency and intensity. These calamities can negate our gains in reducing poverty, and even push back development,” he noted.
On the SDGs, meanwhile, Balisacan expressed the country’s appreciation of the emphasis placed on the SDGs’ Goal 14 to conserve and sustainably use oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.
He also welcomed the inclusion of Philippine priorities on the 2030 Agenda, including collective action for conservation, vulnerabilities and inequality of opportunities.
The Cabinet official also recognized the potential of the 2030 Agenda, which contains the SDGs, to continue the unfinished business of the Millennium Development Goals, as it is now embedded in the more ambitious and comprehensive SDGs, comprised of 17 goals and 169 targets.
Moreover, Balisacan called on the other world leaders to mainstream migration in the development process, reduce remittance costs and fully respect the human rights of migrants.
He, likewise, noted the pressing need to address maternal and reproductive health to accelerate the fulfillment of women’s human rights and the demand to strengthen the capacities of statistical agencies to make official statistics more disaggregated, frequent, timely and accessible.
To meet the financial and technical requirements of the SDGs, the Philippines sought partnerships for expanding access to resources for domestic resource-mobilization capacity-building, leveraging private-sector participation and achieving resiliency.
“To move forward and achieve the overarching goal of eradicating poverty, we must now develop our national plans and budgets for its [SDGs] implementation and monitoring. In doing so, we will collaborate with civil society and all stakeholders in line with the principle of inclusiveness and accountability,” Balisacan said.
The 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda will define international, regional and national development agenda priorities over the next 15 years.