The Department of the Interiorand Local Government (DILG) and the Climate Change Commission (CCC) will collaborate to help build and strengthen the capacities of Local Government Units (LGUs) for Climate Expenditure Tagging.
The activity will help both the local governments as well as concerned national government agencies (NGA) to determine how much have been spent or would be spent for climate change-related programs, projects or activities.
This as DILG Secretary Benjamin “Benhur” Abalos Jr. signed and issued Memorandum Circular (MC) No. 2022-144 enjoining LGUs and DILG offices to participate in the CCC’s webinar, “Leveraging Local Budgets in the Context of Covid-19 Recovery and Sustainable Environmental Management” on November 22 and 23. The MC also reminds local chief executives of their local governments’ submissions under the Climate Change Expenditure Tagging (CCET).
The webinar will feature new insights on the intersections of climate action, health, sustainability, and local climate investments. This webinar is part of the celebration of the Climate Change Consciousness Week with the theme “Sama-samang Tumutugon sa Hamon ng Nagbabagong Klima.” Registration is open via the link: https://bit.ly/LocalCCET2022, the CCC said in a statement.
Pursuant to DBM-CCC-DILG JMC No. 2015-01, local governments at the provincial, city and municipal levels must submit their climate-tagged Annual Investment Programs (AIPs) together with the Quality Assurance and Review (QAR) forms.
The DILG and CCC work hand-in-hand to build the capacities of local governments in mainstreaming climate change in local development plans and investment programs, through the Local CCET and Training of Trainers on enhanced Local Climate Change Action Planning, among other initiatives.
Abalos received CCC Vice Chairperson Robert Borje during a courtesy call last month, where both officials reaffirmed the importance of further strengthening DILG-CCC institutional partnership and in scaling up climate change action capacity building projects for LGUs.
Through the DILG and CCC partnership, LGUs demonstrated increased capacities for climate action and reporting.
DILG MC 2021-046 required local governments to participate in a Local CCET webinar, which resulted in 3,414 trained LGU, NGA, and state universities and colleges representatives.
Subsequently, DILG MC 2021-068 enjoined LGUs to submit their LCCAPs to the CCC, which resulted in additional 715 LCCAPs received by the CCC. This increased LCCAP submissions by 93 percent from 2021, overall making total LCCAP submissions at 80 percent out of 1,715 LGUs.