The Philippines-Japan Environmental Week

Opening & Plenary Session 1

Action toward Decarbonized and Resilient Society

・The world is beginning to share a common recognition of the climate crisis. Japan declared to attain the targets of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 and reducing its GHG emissions by 46% in fiscal year 2030. In order to meet these challenging targets, it is essential for Japan to promote a shift to a sustainable, resilient socioeconomic system, with decarbonization being positioned as one of the major issues to be tackled in all socioeconomic activities and with proactive decarbonization measures being regarded as a driving force for the next substantial growth of the country.

・The Philippines announced at COP26 that the Philippine government will step up its efforts to address climate change and also stated that the Philippines aims to achieve a 75% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The Philippines is among the top five countries that are most affected by climate change, suffering the impact of extreme weather events such as typhoons reaching the (highest) Category 5 intensity.

・Climate change is an issue that all people around the world, across generations and national borders, should urgently tackle. For many private sector actors, it remains challenging to understand how the impacts of climate change may influence their business profitability and continuity over time, and how they can manage climate risks.

・This session explores how central and local governments can further engage with the private sector to address these challenges with a view to establishing decarbonized society and strengthening its resilience to the negative impacts of climate change.

Plenary Session 2

City’s efforts & City to City Collaboration

・With the full-scale operation of the Paris Agreement started in 2020, decarbonization efforts in all countries are becoming more important. Globally, densely populated cities have functions such as transportation, waste management, energy supply & demand, and water supply, which are estimated to account for more than 70% of the total GHG emissions. Therefore, efforts toward decarbonization at the city level is essential.

・In order to contribute to realize decarbonization, Japan and the Philippines are implementing efforts such as cooperation between local governments, and project-based initiatives in which private businesses participate. Further strengthening of efforts is required in the future.

・In this session, participants will learn the best practices of city’s initiative in the Philippines in the context of the climate change or specific projects of the city-to-city collaboration between the Philippines and Japan, and discussing further actions and collaborations for building a decarbonization society.

Thematic Session 1

Seminar on the Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM) Implementation in the Philippines

・The Ministry of the Environment, Japan (MOEJ) is promoting dissemination of advanced decarbonizing technologies through Financing Programme for JCM Model Projects. In this seminar, the Japanese government and the Philippine government will make presentations on measures related to the JCM.

・The related organizations will explain the outline of the JCM scheme, and an implementation company introduce to a case study of JCM Model Project in the Philippines.

・This seminar aims to promote the formation of JCM projects in the Philippines by deepening participants' understanding of policies, lessons learned from the implemented projects, and promising field in the Philippines.

Thematic Session 2

Introduction of E-learning training materials of Climate Change Adaptation ISO

In developing countries, there is still few information to be used in planning and implementing of climate change adaptation measures, especially in local governments and communities. In addition, while there is a lot of information in English, it is difficult to obtain information in other local languages.

The International Standard for Climate Change Adaptation (ISO) formulated in 2019 and 2020 has become an international standard that is expected to be used universally in both developed and developing countries. This ISO will be used by local government officials in an easy-to-use manner, and will introduce efforts aimed at supporting adaptation planning and implementation in developing countries through the development of online teaching materials in multiple languages.

The event organizer (OECC) will explain the purpose and outline of the training materials. And OECC will introduce the actual video training materials for encourage to use them to support planning and implementation of climate change adaptation.

Introduction of Participatory coastal land-use management (PCLM) project in Oriental Mindoro

This presentation aims to introduce the Participatory Coastal Land-use Management (PCLM) approach, which uses participatory approaches and geospatial tools to promote climate-resilient coastal land-use planning.

Particular focus will be on the application of PCLM in Oriental Mindoro Province of the Philippines, and on a free guidebook developed for training government officials.

PCLM consists of a four-step process including: scenario development, impact assessment, countermeasure identification, and climate resilient land-use planning and implementation. A guidebook explaining the full details of the approach is available online at:
https://www.iges.or.jp/en/pub/pclm-guidebook/en