Philippines leads group mobilizing fund to counter global climate change

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines will lead 19 other countries in the establishment of a group that will tackle how to cope with natural disasters and calamities by mobilizing funds toward climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima chairs the Vulnerable 20 (V20) group which will hold its inaugural meeting on the sidelines of the annual gathering of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 8.

The group will “enable vulnerable countries to steer a high-level policy dialogue pertaining to action on climate change and the promotion of climate resilient and low emission environment,” according to a statement at the V20 website.

Among others, the group aims to develop key strategies to easily disburse public and private funds to respond to catastrophes. Sharing best practices on dealing with disasters and their impact to economies is also part of the group’s tasks.

Finally, V20 also seeks to develop approaches to climate finance and engage in “joint activity and other collective actions” in the future, the statement said.

The group’s membership spans three continents and is led by the Philippines and Timor Leste in Southeast Asia as the nations belonging to the Pacific Ring of Fire, economies at the pathway of typhoons and most prone to other natural calamities. Vietnam is likewise a member.

Small Pacific countries voicing out actions to limit the rise of sea waters and attend to the climate change phenomenon are also part of the group. They are Madagascar, Maldives, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Bhutan.

Other member-nations are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Barbados, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Kiribati, Nepal, Rwanda, Saint Lucia and Tanzania.

According to the meetings schedule, technical working groups and finance minister deputies will open the inaugural gathering on Oct. 7. Finance ministers will then follow suit on Oct. 8.

The V20 is established pursuant to the Costa Rica Action Plan 2013-2015 which laid out the group’s priorities when it first met informally in Warsaw Poland two years ago. Aside from climate finance, the plan mentioned the need to tackle the impact of climate change to health, human rights, labor, migration, and science.