Mitigation

Note: The Philippines' Mitigation Cost-Benefit Analysis was initially carried out in 2015 to inform the country's Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC). It was eventually updated in 2018 to reflect developments, i.e. most recent data and information, relevant to the study. The climate change mitigation options outlined in the CBA were based on the following considerations:

  1. The mitigation options are reflected in national policies, regulations and development plans for the Philippines and/or options that are being considered for future adoption;
  2. The options are included in prior mitigation studies and reports for the Philippines (such as efforts by the UNDP and ADB) to prioritize and/or analyze mitigation options for various sectors;
  3. The options have the potential to reduce and/or avoid GHG emissions in the Philippines; and/or
  4. Stakeholders recommended inclusion of the options in this study.

In the context of NDC development, the CBA study aims to guide and provide foundational premise in the formulation of the country's NDCs. Hence, the findings of the CBA are currently being revisited by the sectoral and oversight agencies in collaboration with the Climate Change Commission (CCC). The mitigation options presented therein are provisional and subject to revisions based on best available datasets and updated methodologies, and, most importantly, the national development objectives and priorities.

Furthermore, the chapter on Agriculture was not updated in 2018 since this particular sector was not covered in the INDC.



The Philippines officially became a Party to the Paris Agreement on April 22, 2017. This is a landmark agreement reached at the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) of the United Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which aims to limit the global temperature rise to well below 2C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the increase even further to 1.5C.

The agreement requires all parties to put forward ambitious efforts through their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC). The Philippines is currently crafting its NDC which shall be built upon the country’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) communicated to the UNFCCC on October 1, 2015.

The Philippine NDC aims to present a paradigm shift toward low-carbon development and should be aligned with national policies and strategies while promoting the country’s economic development and industrialization goals.

The development of the Philippine NDC involves three (3) phases: (i) Revisiting the parameters of the INDC submitted to UNFCCC; (ii) Reconstructing the INDC into NDC through validation of the mitigation options and target setting; and (iii) Reporting of the NDC every 5 years and development of M&E and MRV systems.

The NDC are calculated per sector to ensure alignment to strategic priorities and programs. The major sectors involved are Agriculture, Waste, Industry, Transport, Forestry and Energy (AWIT-FE). Each sector identified their own mitigation options and each option was subjected to Cost-Benefit Analysis for prioritization.

MITIGATION COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS

As the Philippine economy continues to expand, the Government of the Philippines is working to address the sustainability and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission challenges related to sustaining this growth. As a part of this effort, the Climate Change Commission (CCC) partnered with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to develop the quantitative evidence base for prioritizing climate change mitigation by conducting a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of climate change mitigation options. An economy-wide CBA is a systematic and transparent process that can be used to evaluate the impact of potential government interventions on the welfare of a country’s citizens. Thus, the CBA is well-suited for the identification of socially-beneficial climate change mitigation opportunities in the Philippines.

The scope of the CBA covers all GHG emitting sectors in the Philippines, including agriculture, energy, forestry, industry, transport, and waste.