Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has lauded the Vulnerable Twenty (V20) Ministerial Dialogue for having spotlighted the plight of all countries most vulnerable to climate change, but said a lot more must be done collectively by its members to get the rest of the world to assist in the additional $100 billion in financing package by 2020 for the global response against this environmental scourge.
Global warming has started to take its toll on vulnerable countries, and for V20 members, “an effective international response has become a matter of survival,” Dominguez said in his speech during the V-20 High Level Ministerial Meeting held on the sidelines of the recent Annual Fall Meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington DC, USA.
V20 was formed a year ago by the world’s 20 countries most vulnerable to climate change, with the Philippines’ finance secretary elected as the first chairperson. This bloc’s membership has since then increased to 43 countries, and with the Ethiopian finance minister taking over as chairperson in that V20 meeting in Washington.
“There is much more this forum has to accomplish,” the finance secretary said. “We need to put in more effort in getting the rest of the world involved in shaping the roadmap toward assisting us with the $100 billion in additional financing flows we direly need by 2020.”
“We are asking for a clear roadmap towards the mobilization of $100 billion in additional financing flows to help the most vulnerable countries protect themselves from the ill effects of global warming,” said Dominguez, the outgoing chairperson of this forum for the 20 countries most vulnerable to climate change.
“These adverse effects include droughts, rising sea levels, desertification and extreme weather events,” he said.
Dominguez said in his speech that, for its part, the Philippines has invested an equivalent of $20 million of its own resources in a People’s Survival Fund to help build the country’s resilience in fighting climate change.
“The Philippines invested over $20 million of our own resources in my government’s People’s Survival Fund,” he said. Our colleagues in the V20 have been taking similar action. ”
Added Dominguez: “Our plans to build resilience and develop while protecting the climate and our people are also among the most ambitious of any countries in the world—this despite the tremendous limits of our capacities. International cooperation will therefore provide our domestic economies with vital support and confidence we need to excel in fighting climate change.”
Dominguez said that unless the commitment to mobilize additional funding to assist the V20 members is realized, “these countries will themselves in peril.”
“This financing package will have to be promoted as the crux of the global response to climate change,” he added.
In becoming an effective forum for tackling fiscal responses and individual actions, the dialogue has opened lines of economic cooperation, he said, and sounded a clear challenge to the existing financial system on how to confront the climate crisis by way of the member-countries’ ambitious proposals for managing their shared risks.
But there is much more to be accomplished in advancing the common advocacy and—because the challenge facing V20 members is “large and complex”—in crafting an action agenda that must be comprehensive enough to deal with this environmental crisis, Dominguez said.
“We will have to work harder to put this roadmap at the top of the agenda of international financial cooperation,” he said. “Our demand is just and our plight is an urgent one. Our collective voice deserves to be heard.”
“It is ironic that the countries least responsible for causing climate change find themselves most vulnerable to its ill effects. The most vulnerable economies are also, in the main, the poorest—therefore most constrained in applying solutions to save lives and ensure the safety of our communities,” he said.
With the Philippines as chair of this ministerial dialogue, he said the V20 group has managed to do the following over the past year:
Ø Called global attention to the specific plight of the most vulnerable countries.
“This ministerial dialogue became an effective forum for exchanging notes on fiscal responses and individual actions,” he said. “Through this forum, we have opened lines of economic and financial cooperation;”
Ø Sounded a clear challenge to the existing financial system with the V20 members’ ambitious proposals for managing the looming climate crisis;
Ø Jointly explored interesting new and innovative ideas for addressing climate risk.
“These ideas served to stimulate global discussion on this urgent concern,” he said; and
Ø Established practical channels for fellow finance ministers to continuously collaborate in advancing our common advocacy, in establishing a common climate-related accounting work and in managing our shared risks.
Dominguez recalled that this Ministerial Dialogue was organized just last year to promote a stronger international response to climate change.
He said it was put up to serve as a forum to exchange ideas on effective countermeasures to protect the most vulnerable countries from climate change, and to collectively deal with the members’ bilateral and multilateral partners.
During the event, Dominguez turned over the chairmanship of the V20 forum to Abdulaziz Mohamed, who is Ethiopia’s Minister of Finance and Economic Cooperation.
Dominguez said that, “Global warming is not something we anticipate long into the future. Its destructive effects already take their toll on the most vulnerable countries. For many of our communities, an effective international response has become a matter of survival.”
“I can only wish the next chair of this ministerial dialogue the best. Failing in achieving the goals of this forum will mean failing our people,” he said.
