In the beginning of the 29th Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29), ICSC Executive Director Angelo Kairos dela Cruz was featured in the November 14 broadcast of Dateline Philippines on the ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC), highlighting how climate finance can help ensure that small island developing countries, such [...]
The Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) joined this year’s United Nations Conference of Parties (COP28), held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates from November 30 to December 13. The organization actively participated in discussions and activities on the Global Stocktake (GST), adaptation and mitigation, energy, finance, loss and damage, and innovative climate action. ICSC [...]
The latest United Nations climate science report released yesterday affirmed that urgent, ambitious climate action can still guarantee a sustainable, liveable future for all even as global warming has already reached 1.1 degrees Celsius (°C) above pre-industrial levels and emissions continue to rise.
The G20 Media Center was set abuzz as members of the information desk announced the joint communique is ready for public view. A draft communique seen by some the night before showed that G20 leaders will close their summit in Indonesia this week with a strongly worded statement against Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. But climate advocates have been waiting on bated breath as there were fears major economy leaders are backtracking on their pledge to limit global warming to 1.5C.
The V20 Group of Finance Ministers from 58 climate-vulnerable economies today demanded reforms in the global financing architecture as they face mounting economic threats from climate disasters and debt. V20 countries have at least USD435 billion of debt servicing payments due in four years at a time when new investment is severely needed, the Group noted in its V20 Ministerial Dialogue IX Communique.
PALAWAN, Philippines — The skies were still clear when the farmer went to take a final look at his crops. A massive tropical cyclone was hours away from making landfall in the northern Philippines, and the province of Nueva Ecija, known as the “rice granary” of the country, was in the center of its path. Officials warned that more than a million hectares (2.47 million acres) of farmland could be flattened just before harvesting season, devastating the poor, rural communities that have increasingly shouldered the brunt of the country’s natural disasters.
Some of the nations most vulnerable to climate change face a sharp rise in debt service payments in the coming two years, hampering their ability to invest in climate proofing and shoring up their economies, a research report found. The Vulnerable Group of Twenty (V20) - a group of 55 economies exposed to the fallout from climate change - expect debt service payments to rise to $69 billion by 2024 - the highest level in the current decade, according to calculations from the V20 and the Boston University Global Development Policy Centre.
From drought to floods and sea level rise, the cost of damage caused by climate change will only get higher as the world warms, sparking concerns from both top officials and activists about how to pay for it. “Loss and damage from the climate crisis is not a future event. It is happening now, all around us,” said United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on a visit to Pakistan, which recently suffered from devastating floods that displaced hundreds of thousands of people and left over a thousand dead.
STRONG STORMS, heavy flooding and prolonged droughts may result in around $124 billion in losses to the Philippine economy between 2022 and 2050, according to research firm GHD. This translates to an average annual gross domestic product (GDP) loss of 0.7% for the Philippines, GHD said in a statement following the release of its report “Aquanomics: The economics of water risk and future resilience.”
Report underscored emergency need for crisis-level action via loss and damage funding for the most vulnerable economies MANILA, June 9, 2022 – A report released yesterday by the Vulnerable Twenty (V20) Group of Finance Ministers detailed the massive economic damage wrought by climate change on the economies of the V20, representing countries considered the most [...]