Marcos economic team vows to uphold green agenda

Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno–INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/
EDWIN BACASMAS

Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno has committed to keep climate change mitigation and adaptation at the forefront alongside economic growth under President Marcos’ watch.

“The Philippines is one of the countries at highest risk for climate-related disasters. We are thus determined to be a world leader in this fight against the crisis. To demonstrate this, the country set an ambitious commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 75 percent in 2030 despite contributing only 0.3 percent to global emissions,” Diokno told G20 finance ministers and central bank governors on Saturday.

The Finance chief and head of the Marcos administration’s economic team was invited by host Indonesia to attend the meetings despite the Philippines not being a part of the G20 grouping of richer nations.

“Under the leadership of newly elected President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., we continue to pursue a whole-of-nation approach to achieve our commitment. In this regard, we have assembled a group of Filipino experts to engage climate-vulnerable communities and prepare them to execute localized action plans,” Diokno said, referring to initiatives jumpstarted during the term of Rodrigo Duterte.

On top of pushing for single-use plastics tax and looking into the viability of carbon tax, Diokno said the Philippines would slash energy costs by developing clean and renewable sources like geothermal, hydro, solar and wind farms. “We will work together with the international community, such as our ongoing partnership with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), to quicken our transition from coal to clean energy.” The ADB’s energy transition mechanism being piloted in the Philippines and Indonesia will finance retirement of coal-fired plants and their replacement with clean energy sources.

“We will hit the ground running in mobilizing climate finance through the ‘green force’ co-led by the Department of Finance and the central bank. This interagency task force was established to synergize public and private investments in green projects and mainstream climate change through the financial sector. Our climate finance initiatives will promote a sustainable orchestration of grants, investments and subsidies,” Diokno said. INQ