Diokno underscores importance of mobilizing blended finance to scale up climate action at COP28 climate talks

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES––Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno has underscored the importance of mobilizing blended finance to scale up climate action during a series of events at the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) Finance Day on December 4, 2023 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

In a high-level roundtable organized by the UAE government, finance ministers gathered to share their country’s efforts to reform the international climate finance structure and explore ways to unify initiatives through a shared vision.

“Innovative sources of financing are needed to augment the increasing financing costs associated with climate action,” Secretary Diokno said during his intervention at the High-Level Roundtable on How to Scale up Financial Resources and Implement Enabling Policies for Climate Action.

Scaling up climate finance, especially in developing countries like the Philippines, is essential to achieving the objectives of the Paris Agreement––the international treaty on climate change.

Under the Agreement, Parties are called to implement efforts to limit the global average temperature increase to below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

The Philippines, through its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), has committed to a projected greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction and avoidance of 75 percent for the period 2020 to 2030 for the sectors of agriculture, waste, industry, transport, and energy.

According to a report that was jointly commissioned by the Government of the United Kingdom and the Government of Egypt, developing countries would need US$ 2 trillion annually in climate funding by 2030.

Secretary Diokno identified three key elements to effectively scale up sustainable and climate finance: 1) the full alignment of financing and investments with national climate plans and development agenda; 2) the systematic allocation of financial resources; and 3) the mobilization of the private sector in funding climate-smart infrastructure.

In this effort, he shared that the Philippine government has put in place reforms to improve the public-private partnership (PPP)