TAGUIG, Philippines — The Philippine government, through the Climate Change Commission (CCC) and co-chair British Embassy Manila, held the second technical-level meeting of the Philippines Adaptation Development Partners’ Coordination Group (DPCG) to strengthen the country's adaptation efforts, particularly at the local level.
Building on Previous Agreements
The meeting aimed to advance commitments made during the first DPCG technical-level meeting on September 8, 2025. The DPCG serves as a structured platform to align resources, knowledge, and actions among partners, reducing duplication, ensuring efficient resource use, and enhancing the country's coordinated response to climate risks.
Participants included government agencies, development institutions, and international partners who reviewed progress on agreed commitments, aligned support for priority adaptation initiatives, and endorsed key workstreams for the DPCG's second year.
Call for Coherence and Coordination
In his opening remarks, CCC Vice Chairperson and Executive Director Robert E.A. Borje stressed the importance of coherence in adaptation efforts. “As adaptation initiatives grow across sectors and institutions, fragmented support produces fragmented outcomes. We need to look at this from a systems point of view, and a systems-based approach to adaptation is critical to the success of this group,” Borje said.
He emphasized that adaptation must align with national priorities and respond to local needs, as communities, local governments, and vulnerable sectors face increasing climate risks like extreme heat, water stress, sea level rise, and stronger weather disturbances.
British Embassy Manila Economic and Climate Counsellor Lloyd Cameron noted progress since the Philippines' first National Adaptation Plan (NAP) and the growing recognition of adaptation as a central climate action pillar. “What this group is about is meeting that adaptation challenge in partnership with the multilateral system and with bilateral and international partners,” Cameron said. “Adaptation now has a status much closer to equal, and what matters is that we are having these conversations and working together to move them forward.”
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), as DPCG co-chair, through Undersecretary Analiza Rebuelta-Teh, highlighted the group's role in aligning partner-supported initiatives with the NAP and strengthening coordination. “As we move further into implementation, the role of this group becomes more operationally significant. We are increasingly focused not only on defining priorities but on how they are translated into coordinated, risk-informed, and locally implementable investments aligned across partners and with national systems,” she said.
Localizing Adaptation Action
A key focus was accelerating adaptation localization through the Adaptation Investment Learning Course (AILC), a joint initiative of the CCC, DENR, the Local Government Academy (LGA), and the British Embassy Manila. The LGA reported that the AILC pilot successfully trained local government and planning practitioners from seven provinces, enhancing capacities in climate risk assessment, adaptation planning, and developing evidence-based project pipelines.
CCC Commissioner Rachel Anne S. Herrera updated on the National Adaptation Plan Gender Action Plan (NAP-GAP), which aims to integrate gender, disability, and social inclusion into adaptation planning. She stressed that the NAP-GAP ensures gender-responsive approaches are fully integrated, not treated as standalone. Upcoming regional consultations and a national validation workshop will help finalize the plan this year.
Participants discussed scaling up the AILC and strengthening support for local governments, including a broader climate learning network involving national agencies, academic institutions, technical experts, and development partners.
Reviewing Regional and Global Context
The meeting reviewed outcomes from the ASEAN Climate Week 2026, which emphasized shifting from adaptation ambition to delivery, strengthening enabling environments for adaptation finance, scaling ecosystem-based approaches, and promoting institutional coherence across sectors and governance levels.
The meeting also brought together government agencies, development institutions, the private sector, and academe to discuss priority workstreams for the first year, including NAP mainstreaming, localization, and finance mobilization. Participants reviewed the group's Terms of Reference (TOR) and identified synergies for joint action.
Endorsing Frameworks and Expanding Membership
To support priorities, participants endorsed continued development of NAP-aligned frameworks: the Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) system, Adaptation Communications (AdComms), and the NAP-GAP. Updates highlighted efforts to establish a practical adaptation monitoring system for evidence-based planning, transparency, accountability, and international reporting under the Paris Agreement.
Development partners reaffirmed support for Philippines' adaptation priorities, including NAP implementation, climate finance mobilization, resilience measurement, capacity-building, and adaptation reporting. The meeting endorsed expanding DPCG membership and confirmed priority workstreams for the second year: adaptation finance, localization, monitoring and reporting, gender-responsive planning, and strengthened partner coordination.
Closing Remarks
In closing, co-chairs emphasized that NAP success depends on sustained collaboration among government agencies, development partners, local governments, civil society, academia, and the private sector. The CCC noted that the second DPCG meeting marks another step toward translating adaptation priorities into concrete actions and investments that strengthen resilience and improve lives of vulnerable communities across the Philippines.
