The World Bank asked the Philippine government to give incentives that will encourage the private sector to invest in climate smart agriculture and renewable energy.
Presenting the Country Climate and Development Report 2022 in a forum organized by Laguna-based Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture, the World Bank said the government should raise access of climate financing to private sector.
“Public and private investments are needed to finance adaptation through climate-resilient infrastructure. Financing mitigation measures from private sector should be incentivized by new regulatory technology-push and demand-pull policies,” said WB project leader and lead economist Souleymane Coulibaly during the SEARCA forum.
“On the private side, issuing ESG [environmental, social and governance] bonds under the recently introduced Sustainability Financing Framework could leverage private financing for climate actions,” he said.
ESG bonds are part of sustainability financing supported by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. Eligible green expenditures are clean transportation, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction projects, sustainable agriculture and renewable energy.
World Bank senior environmental economist Stefano Pagiola said the attractiveness of climate smart agriculture practices to farmers should be improved as these have triple wins in terms of productivity, higher resilience and lower greenhouse gas emissions.
