A HIGH-level consultation between the Philippines and Germany will be conducted today (Tuesday), which aims to strengthen the two countries’ partnership for accelerating the respective climate agendas both at the global and national levels.

Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Antonia Loyzaga and Germany’s State Secretary and Special Envoy for International Climate Action Jennifer Lee Morgan will lead the “1st PHL-German Consultation on Climate.”

Loyzaga will be joined in the discussion by senior officials from the member agencies of the Cabinet Cluster on Climate Change Adaptation, Mitigation, and Disaster Risk Reduction, while Morgan will be accompanied by German Ambassador to the Philippines Anke Reiffenstuel and other senior officials at the German Embassy Manila.

The consultation aims to come up with a “blueprint” for how the two countries can start activating a “hotline” between their respective environmental authorities and other key government agencies to accelerate the implementation of some of the priority environmental programs of the Philippines, including its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).

The NDC binds the Philippines to attain an emission or avoidance in its greenhouse gas by 75%, which is equivalent to 3,340 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, as part of the country’s commitment to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

To be discussed during the consultation is the prospect of expanding access to Germany’s International Climate Initiative (IKI) as the Philippines is a focus country of IKI, being one of the countries in the world “most vulnerable” to the impacts of climate change and one of the world’s 17 “megadiverse” countries.

Agenda items also include critical environmental issues of immediate global and national concern, such as the Philippines’ environmental priority programs on water security, decarbonization of the Philippine economy through transitioning to renewable and sustainable energy in keeping with its NDC target, and the strengthening of the country’s climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction and management capacities.

To date, the IKI projects with the Philippines have exceeded 63 million euros in funding, covering projects on mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, adaptation to the impacts of climate change, and conservation of natural carbon sinks with a focus on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+), and biodiversity conservation.

The IKI is a funding program initiative for climate action and biodiversity conservation established in 2018 by the German government as part of its commitments in the framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

At least 700 projects in more than 120 countries are funded by IKI with around 3.9 billion euros.

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Cory Martinez