The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) conducted a whole-day special seminar on Climate Finance and Negotiations on 21 February 2017 at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Building, Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City.
The resource speaker, Honorable Bernarditas Muller, is a Special Advisor on Climate Change of South Centre, Geneva. In 2016, she was the lead coordinator for finance and finance-related issues of the G-77 and China, a group of developing countries in the United Nations, which provides the means for the countries of the South to articulate and promote their collective economic interests and enhance their joint negotiating capacity on all major international economic issues within the United Nations system.
Ms. Muller related in the seminar some of her experiences on negotiating climate finance and finance-related decisions adopted during the 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP) held in Marrakech, Morocco, on 7-18 November 2016, where she served as lead coordinator.
Ms. Muller stated that climate finance is critical to addressing climate change because huge investments would be necessary to significantly reduce emissions. It is also equally important for adaptation, which aims to help countries adapt to the adverse effects and reduce the impacts of climate change.
She also affirmed that it is imperative that national direct access entities from developing countries are given the priority for accreditation in the Green Climate Fund (GCF). The main rationale for direct access has been to ensure that national priorities and objectives are followed, and also that financial resources are not reduced through transaction costs imposed by these institutions.
The participants in the seminar include DFA and FSI officers and staff, and representatives from the Office of Senator Loren Legarda and government agencies, including the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Climate Change Commission (CCC), and Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
