Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said the government is finalizing a sustainable finance framework on the issuance of the country’s first sovereign green bonds.
Dominguez said during the 8th Securities and Exchange Commission-Philippine Stock Exchange Corporate Governance Forum held Thursday the move was in step with the government’s effort to mobilize funds for capital-intensive climate adaptation and mitigation projects in the face of worsening global warming.
Dominguez said SEC prepared the country’s capital markets for the demand in green investments, having released numerous guidelines on the issuance of green, social, and sustainability bonds that adhere to the standards set by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
He said that through its private sector, the Philippines is ahead among its ASEAN peers in accessing climate finance. Dominguez is the chairman-designate of the Climate Change Commission and head of the Philippine delegation in the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties summit in Glasgow, Scotland.
Philippine companies issued $4.8 billion worth of ASEAN-labelled GSS bonds since 2019. The amount, equivalent to 29 percent of the total ASEAN-labelled GSS Bond issuances, is the highest in the region, he said.
The Philippines, in preparation for the maiden green bonds offering and the mainstreaming of climate change in the financial sector, launched on Oct. 20 its Sustainable Finance Roadmap to serve as the country’s masterplan that will create a synergy between public and private investments in greening the financial system.
Dominguez said the roadmap incorporates the Philippines’ whole-of-nation approach to harnessing finance in support of the country’s transition to a clean, sustainable and climate-resilient economy.
“We are at the threshold of a new climate-conscious age. All the old practices that put the planet under the peril it is in now must yield to new mitigating practices. This transition will be comprehensive and most promising,” Dominguez said in his speech.
“We are also in the process of completing our sustainable finance framework for the issuance of our first-ever sovereign green bonds,” he said.
He said the delegation to COP26 affirmed the Philippines’ position that developed countries that are responsible for most of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions should bear the largest financial burden in the transition to carbon neutrality of developing countries like the Philippines.
“This is the essence of climate justice that the most vulnerable countries have long been fighting for. The Philippines, however, will not wait for the Western nations to get their act together. We are moving ahead with the implementation of actual projects on the ground to enable us to meet our commitments,” said Dominguez.
Dominguez said that because the grants, investments and subsidies needed to fulfill these commitments would come from taxpayers, “accountability and transparency are paramount to ensure prudent use of such funds.”
As head of the Philippine delegation to COP26, Dominguez said he broached a proposal to the World Bank Group, Asian Development Bank, and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to help catalyze financial flows to developing countries to enable them to meet their climate change objectives.
