The International Jury, composed of urban experts, commissioned by World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF), has selected Dipolog City as the Philippines National Winner of the One Planet City Challenge (OPCC) 2021-2022.
Representing Hon. City Mayor Darel Dexter T. Uy, Hon. City Councilor Marilou Y. Calibo and City Environment and Natural Resources Officer Mercedita C. Guerrero received Dipolog City’s recognition as the Philippine’s National Winner during the OPPC Awarding Ceremony on the second day of the Urban Future Conference 2022 held in Helsingborg, Sweden last June 1-3, 2022.
WWF, in their letter to Honorable City Mayor Darel Dexter T. Uy, explained that
“The jury’s assessment took into account the alignment of cities’ climate action plans with science-based targets, how well-balanced their mitigation and adaptation actions are towards those targets, as well as their ability to lead, innovate and rise to their challenges.
The jury commended Dipolog on its bold emission reductions plan which are aligned with science-based targets needed to keep global warming within 1.5°C. Dipolog has reported innovative and impactful action plans that will help achieve these targets and bring long term co-benefits such as forest rehabilitation which will assist with mitigation and adaptation. These also have the potential for upscaling to increase their impact. The jury noted the prevalence of emissions from the building sector and the importance of plans for mitigation actions to impact on them.”
It might be recalled that in its report to the CDP Disclosure Portal last year, along with climate plans and actions, Dipolog City highlighted its commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by 2030 and carbon neutral by 2050.
As the National Winner, the City of Dipolog was also invited as one of the panelists during the “Visionary: leading change” session. Representing Honorable Mayor Darel Dexter T. Uy, City Councilor Marilou Y. Calibo discussed the firm commitment of Mayor Uy in doing the city’s share in combating the effects of climate change. Among others, she discussed climate mitigation actions currently being done by the city such as harnessing renewable energy for its street lights and implementation of forest protection and rehabilitation projects to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and sequestering GHG from the atmosphere, respectively.
To date, the Solar Street Lighting Project of Mayor Uy has successfully made 80% of the street lights in major roads of the city off-grid and accounted for an average of PhP 0.5 million savings of electricity costs of the city monthly. Moreover, rehabilitation and protection of the city’s forests and forest lands, including wetlands, and implementation of agroforestry and barangay forest parks projects are among the City Government’s endeavors to increase forest cover and enhance biodiversity in the next five years.
In March 2022, WWF-Philippines announced the three (3) cities chosen by the international jury as national finalists, namely, Davao City, Dipolog City, and Quezon City.
(Source: City Information Office Dipolog)