We shared insights today in the second day of the workshop organized by the finance secretariat of the United Nations climate convention for ASEAN countries in Park Inn by Radisson in Quezon City. The event, a technical workshop on needs-based climate finance mobilization and access strategies which began yesterday, enjoyed views shared by Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Thailand, and the Philippines.
The workshop provided an opportunity to take stock of the state of climate finance in Southeast Asia while exchanging experience and expertise among experts in the region.
ICSC Board Chair Athena Ballesteros is the lead consultant in the event, assisting the head of the UNFCCC Finance Secretariat Yolando Velasco. Apart from ICSC representing INGOs, also present are the United Nations Development Programme and WWF-Philippines. The Philippine government was represented by Commissioner Rachel Herrera of the Climate Change Commission and Albert Magalang of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’s climate change office.
ICSC provided perspectives in the session covering different, bilateral, multilateral, national, regional, and international sources of climate finance. Among the points we highlighted: the fundamental importance of definitions, for instance, adaptation finance, as distinguished from climate finance, and the size of climate finance available to countries, and the larger, more pressing challenge regarding the determination of plans that will define not only the magnitude of finance needs but also the modalities and synergies that influence the mobilization and deployment of resources. Lastly, ICSC stressed the notion of leadership, in particular covering approaches that can consistently elevate the need for leadership from the region’s finance ministries.
ICSC also discussed the strategic initiatives of the Vulnerable 20 Group of Finance Ministers, established in October 2015 as the sister organization of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, composed of 48 governments of many of the most vulnerable countries today. This includes the V20-led Sustainable Insurance Facility or SIF, which was launched in a kick-off event in New York last September during the period of the UN General Assembly, and the Accelerated Finance Mechanism for Maximal Resilience and 100% Renewable Energy, both of which were discussed at the technical and ministerial level during the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington DC among partners of the InsureResilience Global Partnership.
ICSC will be present as before, monitoring and supporting CVF governments and assisting the Philippine delegation in the global climate negotiations in Chile in December.
