Undersecretary Analiza Rebuelta-Teh of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources; Australia Climate Ambassador Kristin Tilley; Global Affairs Canada Climate Finance Executive Director Andrew Hurst; UK Climate Envoy Rachel Kyte; fellow workers in government; development partners; and friends in climate action: good morning.

It is an honor to welcome you all to the Philippine Pavilion as we gather in the city of Baku for yet another critical moment in global climate action.

Looking at the list and caliber of individuals gathered for today’s event, I could not have asked for a better group of minds to lead us in the fight against climate change.

In a world battling with many crises on every front, no challenge demands our unity more urgently than the threat of climate change.

And for the Philippines, we are fortunate to have a President who stands as our number one champion of climate action. He is the one uniting every Filipino to draw on the very best of who we are as a nation to save our planet.

Under President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. ‘s leadership, achieving both rapid economic growth and climate resilience is at the heart of the Philippine Development Plan. And all government agencies are mobilized towards the full realization of this goal.

The Department of Finance, in particular, is the leading agency taking bold steps to carefully balance the complexities of economic development and climate action.

For we believe that these two vital agendas are not competing forces on a scale. When done right and contextualized in our own realities, they work in harmony to ensure the welfare, security, and prosperity of the Filipino people.

With this, we crafted a Medium-Term Fiscal Program that serves as our overall plan for sustainable economic growth while upholding the highest standards of fiscal discipline.

For fiscal stability is our launchpad for the long-term investments needed to make a real and meaningful climate action.

The plan enables us to prudently finance green infrastructure, support local adaptation projects, educate our people on climate consciousness, create green jobs, and reduce poverty along the way.

We are also armed with our National Adaptation Plan and Nationally Determined Contributions Implementation Plan as our playbooks outlining the strategies to fully achieve both our climate and economic objectives.

Our very own People’s Survival Fund is one of our many concrete and innovative climate solutions. This channels vital resources directly to where they are needed the most—to locally tailored and community-led climate adaptation projects.

Protecting our national assets is very crucial for ensuring the economic security of our people—that is why we have a National Indemnity Insurance Program in place. This ensures that we safeguard our public school buildings to secure a better future for our children.

Aside from budget allocations on disaster preparedness and response, we have additional standby credit lines from development partners that we can immediately tap to deliver assistance for relief and rehab of affected communities.

In fact, the Philippines was the first country to sign the Rapid Response Option agreement with the World Bank—a model that has since been followed by 25 other nations.

Meanwhile, with the help of our friends in the UK Government, we assembled our own “Green Force” to accelerate the creation of a sustainable finance ecosystem in the country to draw in more green investments.

And recognizing that the whole nation must be mobilized, we enacted our Public-Private Partnership Code to expedite sustainable and climate-resilient investments across the Philippine archipelago.

I am proud to say that the Philippines is among the first nations to require ESG standards and champion gender inclusivity across all PPPs. Because for us, progress must be both swift and sustainable, impactful and inclusive.

The Department of Finance is also utilizing fiscal policy as a tool to promote a regime that rewards green investments in the country.

We recently enacted a new law called CREATE MORE that will improve our tax incentives policy and tailor-fit investors’ interests to attract more investments in clean and renewable energy, green infrastructure, sustainable agriculture, and waste-to-energy technologies.

We are also awaiting the passage of a bill imposing an excise tax on single-use plastic bags to cut pollution and adopt more sustainable practices.

Along with these, both the government and the private sector are actively issuing sustainability bonds to finance both green and social projects nationwide.

And our commitment does not end at our borders. Because climate change does not respect boundaries, and neither should our actions.

That is why President Marcos, Jr. took a decisive step to secure the Philippines’ hosting of the Loss and Damage Fund Board to bring greater climate finance access for our neighbors in the Asia-Pacific region.

And I could go on and on—as the list of concrete climate actions the Philippines is leading is very extensive. My representative at COP 29, my Chief of Staff and ultimate climate finance champion, Undersecretary Maria Luwalhati Dorotan Tiuseco, is here to provide more comprehensive details on these.

I say extensive because we are acutely aware that as climate impacts grow, so too will the difficulty and cost of eradicating poverty in the Philippines. Climate change is the ultimate injustice.

But we also know that a climate-proof nation cannot be built in a day. That is why we are eager to learn from your insights and best practices—so we can harness our collective strength and drive integrated solutions that bring climate action and poverty eradication all together.

My call to all of you is this: Let us make this year’s COP count. Let us push the boundaries of what is possible to steer the world faster and further on the road to a more prosperous future that the next generations will proudly inherit.

Thank you.