What we did
The Philippines is among the Southeast Asian countries experiencing rapid economic growth and urbanization. Megacities in the ASEAN face severe urban challenges and are a major contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Thus, the need to accelerate climate change initiatives in these big cities is imperative. In the first Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) submitted by the Philippines to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) last April 2021, the Philippines set a GHG emission reduction and avoidance of 75%. 2.71% of which will be unconditional, and 72.9% conditional.
As the strategic priorities identified in the NCCAP - namely, the Environmental and Ecological Stability, Human Security, Sustainable Energy, Climate-Smart Industries and Services, and Knowledge and Capacity Development - also fall under the sectoral development concerns of the CDP, Local Government Units (LGUs) are able to enhance their programming, project identification, investment programming and prioritization towards adaptation and mitigation. This complements the Climate Change Act with Memorandum Circular No. 2014-135 (or the Guidelines for the Formulation of the LCCAP, as released by the DILG. Section 3.3.5 of the Memorandum Circular) that strongly suggests LGUs identify mitigation options to help reduce their carbon footprints and contribute to efforts in addressing climate change.
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How we tracked
By the end of this capacity building program, the participating LGUs are expected to have crafted their own work plans and roadmaps in formulating and implementing their City Promises in line with their contexts, priorities, and aspirations to support and complement the national government’s efforts in fulfilling its NDC.
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What we achieved
The capacity building program intends to build the capacities of local government unit (LGU) officers of highly urbanized cities (HUCs) in the Philippines in understanding the fundamentals of local climate change mitigation planning. By the end of the program, participating HUCs are expected to be equipped with basic knowledge and skills in formulating their baseline GHG emissions inventories, setting science-based GHG reduction targets, and crafting low emission development strategies that are consistent with the priorities and aspirations of DENR’s contributions to the implementation of the Philippine NDC.
This program is spearheaded by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Climate Change Service (DENR-CCS) in collaboration with ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability Southeast Asia Secretariat (ICLEI SEAS). It shall employ the existing guidelines and tools on local climate action planning developed by the national government and supplemented by the good practices and lessons learned from the implementation of the Ambitious City Promises (ACP) project by ICLEI in selected Southeast Asian cities.
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