Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has called on his fellow fiscal policymakers from other countries to act on the climate emergency with the same sense of urgency as the world has been doing in handling the global health and economic crises spawned by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.

Secretary Dominguez said that while countries are now focused on fighting COVID-19, they should not neglect other major threats to human survival such as the now erratic global climate patterns that have led to an increasing incidence of natural disasters around the world.

“Unlike COVID-19, for which a vaccine will likely be produced soon, there is no quick solution for the climate crisis. We need to act now with the same sense of urgency that we have for the ongoing pandemic,” Secretary Dominguez said in a pre-recorded video statement for the virtual 4th Ministerial Meeting of the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action held on October 12, 2020.

“With our stronger collaboration, I am confident that we can build back better economies that future generations deserve,” he added.

Secretary Dominguez reiterated this call during a webinar organized by the European Union (EU) Delegation to the Philippines via Zoom last October 22 with environment and science journalists.

“There is no Planet B. We either save the earth or perish with it,” he said during the “State of Play: Green Recovery and Sustainable Reporting” webinar.

In the webinar, Secretary Dominguez affirmed the Philippines’ solidarity with the EU in its goal of limiting human activities that exacerbate the climate emergency.

He also acknowledged EU’s assistance in helping the Philippines expand its sustainable energy generation capacity to meet the economy’s growing needs.

The Finance Secretary said the world can address the climate emergency “with a better and more informed approach. Unlike COVID-19 that caught the world off guard, we have a wealth of information and innovative solutions on how to best deal with the climate crisis. We should be more prepared to save lives and prevent the worst possible outcomes.”

The Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action, which was formed on the sidelines of the Annual Meetings of the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) held in 2018, has brought together fiscal and economic ministers from over 50 countries in leading the global climate response and in securing the transition of communities towards low-carbon resilient development.

Since the Coalition’s launch two years ago, its members have signed on to what it calls the ‘Helsinki Principles,’ which aim to help countries mobilize and align the financing needed to implement their national climate action plans; establish best practices such as climate budgeting and strategies for, green investment and procurement; and factor climate risks and vulnerabilities into economic planning.

Secretary Dominguez said Coalition members should work closely together in recalibrating and strengthening their approach to financial cooperation by targeting policies towards “enhancing each country’s fiscal position to withstand future shocks,” while helping “shape societies toward greater resilience and inclusiveness.”

In the EU webinar, Secretary Dominguez said that on the part of a climate crisis-vulnerable country like the Philippines, it is pushing the use of digital technologies for climate prediction to make its agriculture sector more resilient.

“We hope to learn more from the European Union’s technological innovations in water management and conservation, sustainable energy, and modern agriculture,” Secretary Dominguez said.

In both events, he said the Philippines and other countries can turn the pandemic-induced crisis into an opportunity for them to begin building sustainable and safer cities, and shifting investments to clean energy resources and green technologies.

The ongoing pandemic, he said, has informed countries on how they can better respond to future health emergencies and disasters.

On the part of the Philippines, Secretary Dominguez said it has chosen to exercise fiscal prudence in dealing with the pandemic as the battle against it will be a test of fiscal stamina.

He said that since 2016, the Philippines has been shoring up its finances to support President Rodrigo Duterte’s aggressive infrastructure program meant to reduce poverty, but did not realize then that this financial build-up will also serve to improve its defenses against economic shocks such as those unleashed by the coronavirus pandemic across the globe.

The game-changing reforms that the Philippines implemented over the last four years under the Duterte presidency to help fund its infrastructure program has also strengthened the country’s fiscal stamina, he said.

Thus, when the COVID-19 crisis struck early this year, the Philippines had ample fiscal ammunition to reallocate budget items and quickly access emergency financing to curb the spread of the virus and provide relief to people and sectors hardest hit by the pandemic, Secretary Dominguez said.

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