Quezon City - The British Embassy Manila and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) co-chaired the 3rd UK-Philippines Climate Change and Environment Dialogue together with key government agencies on 13 April, 2023.
The Dialogue culminated in the signing of a renewed Partnership Statement on climate and the environment. This agreement lays the groundwork for deeper collaboration across four key pillars of work: enhancing the resilience of the economy, ecosystems and communities; delivering the clean energy transition; mobilising climate finance; and driving inclusive, cross-sectoral collaboration to achieve these goals.
The UK is a world leader in working towards net-zero. It is committed to supporting efforts to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees; increasing access to climate finance through both the public and private sectors; ensuring the international system works for climate vulnerable countries like the Philippines, and supporting countries to adapt to the unavoidable impacts of climate change.
The dialogue demonstrated the extensive cross-government and cross-sectoral conversations and strong policy direction on the climate and environment agenda under the Marcos administration. The dialogue also highlighted how the UK has delivered targeted support behind this agenda in the last years, and what it proposes to focus on in the years to come.
British Ambassador to the Philippines Laure Beaufils said:
We are delighted to be working with the Philippines to keep 1.5 degrees within reach, to build resilience to current and future climate impacts, and to halt and reverse nature loss. Addressing these challenges is not just a public good - it will drive investment, innovation, and empower communities across the Philippines. I welcome the whole of government approach adopted by the Philippines. As the UK, we will be implementing a variety of programmes in support of our common goals; this includes programmes that increase coastal and marine resilience, that support biodiversity conservation, and that enable adaptation planning. It also includes programmes that support energy transition and that support the Philippines to access domestic and international climate finance.
Cabinet Cluster on Climate Change Adaptation, Mitigation and Disaster Risk Reduction (CCAM-DRR) Chair and DENR Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga said:
One of our takeaways from COP27, UN Biodiversity Conference, and the UN Water Conference is the need for a comprehensive climate and disaster risk assessment to de-risk investment and accelerate action towards both green and blue economic development. By taking all hazards and climate change as risk drivers, countries such as the Philippines have the opportunity to address urgent and specific challenges across sectors and scales. We are fortunate to have partners such as the UK for having invested in this vision. We have a shared understanding that the last mile - our communities and ecosystems that support them - need to be the first mile in terms of investment, impact-based early warning, and environmental protection.
Both countries agreed to further strengthen their bilateral partnership on climate and nature through a new 2023-24 UK-Philippines Joint Work Plan on climate and the environment. This Workplan sets out key initiatives and programmes that will be implemented to deliver on their four agreed pillars of work.
Senior officials from the DENR, Climate Change Commission, Department of Agriculture, Department of Finance, Department of Energy, Department of Science and Technology, Central Bank of the Philippines, National Economic and Development Authority, Department of Public Works and Highways, Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA), the Public-Private Partnership Center, and the and UK Government representatives were present during the dialogue.
