Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Antonia Loyzaga has urged the private sector to work closely together in accelerating their adoption of nature-based solutions that will result in co-benefits of climate action and disaster risk reduction.
During her keynote address at the “Sustainability Forum PH: United for Climate” held last November 28 in Manila, Loyzaga highlighted the importance of the leadership of the private sector, which has emerged as a critical actor in bridging the cost of financing climate action.
“I urge those present here today to not only look to energy efficiency – the shifts to renewable energy and resource efficiency, and establishing your process and product contributions to the circular economy – but to internalize the role of nature in adapting to climate change and its critical importance to disaster risk reduction,” Loyzaga said.
The DENR chief lauded the forum, which was co-presented by SM Corporation and World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF), as it served as a platform for the creation of Philippine Alliance for Climate Action that aims to make the public sector come together and address the threat of climate change.
The new alliance, Loyzaga said, could yield the most significant results as the potential synergy among major corporations in the country will most likely generate new capacity to protect, restore, and enhance rich but threatened ecosystems.
Loyzaga rallied top business executives present at the event to consider working with the DENR in its mission of building evidence-informed area-based resilience.
She asked for their support on the establishment of a national risk register that can serve as the basis for determining gaps, needs, and priorities of development plans.
The DENR, under Loyzaga’s leadership, seeks to create a national natural resource geospatial database, an accounting of the country’s natural resources and environmental assets that will support the development of the agency’s strategies.
Loyzaga said the DENR would highly appreciate the private companies’ synergized expert insights and alignment of investments to address complex and cascading risk across sectors and scales.
She also underscored the importance of the private sector’s role in mainstreaming climate and disaster resilience into their core business cycles.
Loyzaga indicated that the conglomerates must not just refer to the businesses they represent and their respective pathways to net zero emissions, but should also include the work needed beyond their fencelines to preserve and protect the ecosystems and communities that support them.
“I believe it is high time for the private sector to come together as an alliance to ensure that the ecological and economic gains as individual companies and organizations are leveraged and magnified for the good of our people, our country, and our planet,” she said.
She then called on the private sector to support the goals of the Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures and Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures which will enable companies and financial institutions to integrate nature into decision making, and improve reporting of climate-related financial information. ###
