The Philippines, through the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), hosted a training workshop on climate finance access and mobilization for ASEAN Member States (AMS) at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati City from March 20 to 23.

Organized by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat, the workshop aimed to build the capacity and skills of the country representatives by providing them with information and tools in accessing and mobilizing climate finance to support their priority climate adaptation and mitigation needs.

It is a component of the Needs-based Finance (NBF) Project, which was established in response to the request by the parties to the UNFCCC to explore ways and means to assist developing nations in assessing their needs and priorities in a country-driven manner, including their technological needs, to translate climate finance needs into action.

“The needs-based framework should be designed with a regional perspective to engage regional and country actors to climate action,” DENR Undersecretary for Policy, Planning, and International Affairs Jonas R. Leones said in his welcome remarks at the workshop.

The workshop provided the platform to validate and refine the Climate Finance Access and Mobilization Strategy developed by the AMS that aims to provide the framework for AMS to improve access and benefit from climate finance mechanisms both internationally, regionally, and domestically. This strategy will provide the possible areas of collaboration among AMS.

During the 27th Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC in November 2022, the Philippine Delegation led by DENR Secretary and Climate Change Commission Chairperson-Designate Antonia Loyzaga emphasized the urgent need to scale up climate financing and make it more accessible to vulnerable countries.

The UNFCCC workshop was participated in by experts of the NBF Project; operating entities of the Financial Mechanisms of the UNFCCC, United Nations agencies and bilateral, regional, and other multilateral channels, direct access entities; and representatives from the 10 AMS, namely Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

The ASEAN Secretariat assisted the UNFCCC Secretariat in facilitating the workshop.#