President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. welcomed on Monday the assistance of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) to help the country in climate resilience and promote green growth strategy through the Host Country Agreement (HCA).

President Marcos relayed this to former United Nations (UN) secretary general Ban Ki-Moon, now the president of the assembly and chair of the Council of GGGI, during the latter’s courtesy call in Malacañang in Manila.

Ban assured his organization’s support to the efforts of the Marcos administration to address climate change.

In December last year, the President approved the HCA signed by the Philippine government with the GGGI that will establish its office in the Philippines.

The agreement still needs to be ratified by the Senate.

Marcos expressed his appreciation for the assistance offered by GGGI.

“We welcome any assistance or any advice on the subject (climate change). I’m certain that after you meet with the Senate President and you will speak with the senators, the ratification of the agreement will follow very quickly,” President Marcos said.

“I think it is something we are all, all of us in government or out of government have really put a great deal of emphasis on simply because it has been… it has affected us greatly. I hope that we can come up with some strategies that will help us,” the President said.

President Marcos said the world can no longer avoid the bad effects of the changing weather pattern, particularly with the continuous warming of the Earth’s atmosphere.

He lauded the Asia Development Bank’s (ADB) mitigation strategy, which he said plays an important role in the Philippines’ climate mitigation and adaption efforts.

Ban had taken notice of the fact that the Philippines is one of the most vulnerable countries in terms of natural disasters caused by climate change.

He said the GGGI is ready to work with the Philippines’ foreign, environment and economic ministers.

Aside from meeting the senators, Ban is scheduled to give a speech on climate change and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the ADB.

With headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, the GGGI was established as an international intergovernmental treaty-based organization in 2012 at the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development, dedicated to supporting and promoting strong, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth in developing countries and emerging economies.

Since the Philippines’ membership in 2012, GGGI has been providing the country technical assistance and capacity building programs, amounting to more than USD13 million, to help the country attain its SDGs, particularly in climate resilience and green growth development.

GGGI also provided interventions towards building green finance portfolios for the Philippines and unlocking access to international climate finance.

GGGI’s notable projects and local actions in the country include the Provincial Agriculture Center and four agri-MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) production facilities in Oriental Mindoro for incubation, facility rentals, and aggregator services linking local farmers to market and green job creation; off-grid solar home systems deployment in disaster vulnerable low-income communities in the Surigao islands; and upscaling the Bataan Electric Public Transport Program, among others.

GGGI’s current projects and activities in the Philippines amount to USD130.3 million. (PNA)