Philippines pushes ASEAN carbon neutrality plan into action

JAKARTA — The Climate Change Commission, representing the Philippines as chair of the ASEAN Task Force on Carbon Neutrality, called for stronger regional cooperation to translate ASEAN’s carbon neutrality strategy into concrete action.

CCC Vice Chairperson and Executive Director Robert E.A. Borje said stronger coordination across sectors is key to moving from strategy to implementation while recognizing the different development priorities and capacities of ASEAN member states.

“Climate ambition is easy to declare. Delivering it, however, requires ownership,” Borje said at the Aug. 5 validation workshop for the ASEAN Strategy for Carbon Neutrality Work Plan in Jakarta, Indonesia.

“The distance between a strategy and a result is measured by the quality of coordination: who acts, who supports, by when, and toward which shared outcome,” he added.

Adopted by the ASEAN Economic Community Council in 2023, the ASEAN Strategy for Carbon Neutrality provides a regional framework for an orderly, inclusive, and economically beneficial transition to a low-carbon economy.

The strategy outlines eight approaches and 16 priority initiatives covering areas such as green value chains, the circular economy, green infrastructure and markets, sustainable finance, and green skills.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is an important part of addressing climate change alongside strengthening adaptation and resilience to impacts already being experienced across the region.

For the Philippines, regional cooperation on carbon neutrality complements its Nationally Determined Contribution and NDC Implementation Plan, which guide climate mitigation efforts while taking national development priorities into account.

Borje said ASEAN cooperation should connect initiatives across sectors while supporting implementation by member states according to their respective national circumstances.

“The Sectoral Bodies, as the custodians of sectoral work, are where the real work lives,” he said.

“The role of the Task Force for Carbon Neutrality is to help connect initiatives across sectors and carry good sectoral ideas up to the regional level where they can scale.”

The Jakarta workshop, convened by the ASEAN Secretariat with support from the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia, brought together member states and relevant ASEAN sectoral bodies as part of continuing work on the Carbon Neutrality Work Plan.

The CCC chairs the ASEAN Task Force on Carbon Neutrality for the Philippines upon the recommendation of the Department of Trade and Industry, which leads the country’s engagement under the ASEAN Economic Community pillar.

Work on the Carbon Neutrality Work Plan will continue through established ASEAN processes before the task force reports to the ASEAN Economic Community Council in November.

The Climate Change Commission is the Philippines’ lead policymaking body on climate change.

Under Republic Act No. 9729, or the Climate Change Act of 2009, as amended by Republic Act No. 10174, the CCC is mandated to coordinate, monitor, and evaluate government programs and actions on climate change and mainstream climate considerations into national, sectoral, and local development plans and programs.

More information on the CCC’s climate mitigation programs and partnerships is available at www.climate.gov.ph and its official Facebook page, CCCPhl.