GIZ provides network for all climate change projects in the Philippines funded by the German Environment Ministry to optimize support

The International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) will convene online all its commissioned projects in the Philippines this November 12-13 to maximize their impact through sustained responsiveness to the country’s climate and biodiversity goals, and to enhance their efficiency through synergy.

This will be the fourth time, since the IKI Networking Workshop started in 2016, that the projects will convene for such purposes, but the first time that they will do so online due to COVID-19.

High-level German IKI officials will attend the event with Philippine project implementers GIZ, UNDP, UN-Habitat, UN-FAO, UN Environment, WWF, ICLEI, Rare, Earth Security Group, and Oasis LMF. Philippine Climate Change Commission (CCC) Vice-Chairperson and Executive Director Secretary Emmanuel De Guzman and German Ambassador to the Philippines Anke Reiffenstuel will deliver the keynote addresses.

On November 12, officials of CCC and the Philippines' Environment and Socio-economic Planning agencies will discuss plans to accelerate the country’s climate action and biodiversity conservation efforts in the new normal, including plans to align public investments in climate change and environmental protection with the government’s ‘We Recover as One’ Strategy for COVID-19 Response and Recovery. Key BMU officials will in turn present Germany’s ‘Green Recovery’ agenda and prospects for the Philippines under IKI.

On November 13, the IKI projects will discuss how to align their projects with the post-pandemic plans of the Philippine government in their sectors, and how to synergize their ‘Green Recovery’ efforts.

The Philippines is a focus country of IKI, being one of the countries in the world most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and one of the world’s 17 megadiverse countries.

While the pandemic slowed down the country’s climate and biodiversity actions, President Rodrigo Duterte, in his speech at the High-Level Debate of the 75th UN General Assembly this September, emphasized the importance of addressing climate change as urgently as the COVID-19 pandemic. This reinforces the earlier pronouncement of the Cabinet Cluster on Climate Change Adaptation, Mitigation and Disaster Risk Reduction that addressing the climate emergency remains a top priority amid the pandemic.

IKI supports the implementation of the Philippine national climate change policy in four areas: mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, adaptation to the impacts of climate change, conservation of natural carbon sinks with a focus on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+), and conservation of biodiversity. To date, IKI projects with the Philippines exceed 63 million EUR in funding. In addition, the Philippines participates in numerous IKI regional and global projects in the four areas. IKI operates within the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

IKI’s GIZ-implemented project “Support to the Philippines in Shaping and Implementing the International Climate Change Regime (SupportCCC)” is the first point of contact for all IKI implementing agencies in the country. It also supports BMU in networking IKI projects to enhance implementation and impact.   

IKI has funded more than 700 projects in over 120 countries worldwide with around 3.9 billion EUR.