MANILA, PHILIPPINES — The recent Roundtable Discussion on Urban Climate Finance, held in Quezon City, was organized under the Integrated Urban Climate Action for Low-Carbon and Resilient Cities (Urban-Act) Project, a regional initiative led by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. In the Philippines, the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) is an implementing partner of the Urban-Act Project, with Clean Air Asia, GIZ Philippines, and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) as the Project’s main political partner. The discussions brought a clear message: the Philippines urgently needs a more comprehensive system for monitoring and evaluating climate actions and finances. Experts stressed that tracking progress and ensuring accountability for climate initiatives would be difficult without such a system.
As part of the opening preliminaries, DILG Assistant Secretary Francisco Cruz shared the DILG’s initial priorities under its new leadership, such as improving national disaster response systems, enhancing public safety, and stabilizing governance through the Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG). ASec. Cruz expressed confidence in continuing the Urban-Act project, anticipating more opportunities for sustainable urban development.
Ed Quitoriano of Visus Consulting OPC pointed out that relying solely on the Annual Investment Program (AIP) for evaluation will fall short. He recommended that Local Government Units (LGUs) instead use their annual accomplishment reports to effectively assess climate initiatives. Quitoriano also emphasized the need for a robust monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework and a measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) system to effectively track climate finance spending and assess its outcomes.
“Kailangan natin ng isang M&E system talaga at kasama ang MRV kasi ngayon masyado nang centralized. Kasi otherwise, hindi naman kayang i-bilang lang ng LGUs iyong mga carbon emissions at iyong mga carbon sinks kung ilang tonelada iyon. So what do you tell the public kung walang capacity? (We need an M&E system that includes MRV because everything is too centralized right now. Without decentralized capacity, LGUs can’t accurately measure carbon emissions and carbon sinks. What do we tell the public if we cannot gauge these impacts?),” ASec. Cruz said.
“It is crucial to establish a mechanism that measures not just how much we spend but also what we achieve with those funds. This is the only way we can ensure accountability and progress in our climate initiatives,” he added.
Danica Marie Supnet, ICSC’s Director for Climate Policy, echoed ASec. Cruz’s position, advocating for reforms in the M&E and MRV processes and improving the quality review of Local Climate Change Action Plans (LCCAPs). She noted that strengthening these plans through effective monitoring would enhance the impact of climate actions at the local level.
Supnet highlighted the resource constraints faced by cities, particularly in climate-vulnerable nations like the Philippines. “With the growing need for cities to accelerate climate action, establishing an effective M&E system is more important than ever. Although climate finance in the Philippines has historically been limited, better tracking and efficient use of such funds will strengthen the capacity of cities to handle larger flows in the future, a key part of our push for climate justice.”
The roundtable discussion, attended by stakeholders from the public and private sectors as well as the academe, underscored the importance of collaboration in building systems that help cities track, report, and make effective use of climate finance. This was the second roundtable in the series this year, with a third expected next year.
Participants included representatives from the national government, local government, civil society organizations, academe, development partners, and the Urban-Act Philippines Consortium.
