Landbank gets int’l award for climate change program

MANILA, Philippines - In recognition of its contribution to the promotion of climate change programs, state-owned Land Bank of the Philippines recently bagged a merit award in the environmental development category of the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific Awards (ADFIAP) 2013 held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

The winning entry, “Carbon Finance Support Facility – Program of Activities for Piggery Farm & Sanitary Landfill Projects,” is Landbank’s flagship program for the promotion of climate change-mitigation projects through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

“This distinction comes with equal responsibility to aggressively promote the program and encourage more existing and potential clients to adopt and invest in clean technologies,” Landbank senior vice president Edward John Reyes, said.

CDM is a market mechanism introduced by the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Developing countries like the Philippines implement CDM projects and generate carbon credits, which can be sold to developed countries to contribute to their greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.

Landbank, as the coordinating and managing entity of the three CDM programs of activities (PoA), namely biogas for piggery farms, landfill gas recovery projects and mini-hydro projects, facilitates eligible program participants to sell carbon credits to the carbon buyers.

These programs are voluntary, coordinated actions by the bank to introduce and promote adoption of clean technologies which can reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to mitigate climate change.

These PoAs are the first to be UNFCCC-registered in the Philippines and Southeast Asia for the animal and solid waste management sectors, making Landbank the first financial institution to have ventured into such an initiative.