The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) of the Philippines wants more climate finance to reach vulnerable communities in the form of grants that they can access directly, Environment Secretary Juan Miguel T. Cuna said.

Speaking at the Baku Dialogue held during the 31st Conference of the Parties (COP31) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Mr. Cuna also called for the empowerment of local knowledge in decision-making.

The Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands and one of the countries most frequently hit by tropical cyclones, is consistently ranked among the world's most climate-vulnerable nations. The Baku Dialogue takes its name from Baku, Azerbaijan, host of COP29 in 2024, where governments agreed to mobilize at least $300 billion a year for developing countries by 2035 and launched the Baku to Belém Roadmap aimed at scaling climate finance to $1.3 trillion annually — a goal more than four times the annual floor agreed at COP29.

Mr. Cuna said streamlining access to funding for local governments is essential to implementing "ecosystem-based adaptation, localized rainwater harvesting, and drought-resilient farming schemes." In climate finance, direct access refers to channeling funds to accredited national and local institutions themselves rather than routing them through international intermediaries — the model underlying his call for direct, grant-based access.

Grant-based financing needs to be the preferred vehicle for climate finance to cut the loan exposure of vulnerable communities, he said. Unlike loans, grants do not have to be repaid, which is why financing adaptation through grants is framed as a safeguard against leaving climate-vulnerable communities with new debt.

He also called for communities to play a bigger role in designing climate mitigation projects and policies.

"Local governments and affected communities should have a direct role in designing adaptation projects, with indigenous and local knowledge considered in decisions to ensure that interventions respond to conditions on the ground," he said.

Real-time climate monitoring for drought and health risks must be linked to financial triggers and agricultural interventions, Mr. Cuna said.

"The Baku to Belém Roadmap to $1.3 trillion must be evaluated by whether it mobilizes accessible, predictable capital to bridge the daunting $284-339-billion annual adaptation finance gap identified in the UN Environment Programme Adaptation Gap Report," Mr. Cuna said.

The Adaptation Gap Report is the United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) annual assessment of the difference between the adaptation funding that developing countries need and the finance they actually receive. In Mr. Cuna's framing, whether the roadmap's capital arrives as grants through direct channels rather than as debt through intermediaries will determine whether that gap closes for communities on the front line.

— Maria Mikaela H. Tormon

Source: BusinessWorld