The United Nations Development Program is addressing the urgent need for innovative financial policy initiatives in the Philippines with a focus on gender-responsive nature-based solutions.

Nature-based solutions proven to offer substantial emission reductions and multifaceted Sustainable Development Goals benefits still face underfunding.

To bridge this gap, UNDP, in a pivotal side event recently at the COP 28 in Dubai, discussed leveraging policy and market mechanisms to engage the private sector in implementing these solutions.

Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno: "A large inflow of green and climate finance must be marshaled to enable the country to meet its Nationally Determined Contribution targets to limit the rise in global temperatures and establish strong climate adaptation and mitigation systems."

Diokno stressed the urgent need for significant green and climate finance influx to meet the country's NDC targets and mitigate climate impacts, especially on vulnerable groups, notably women and economically marginalized sectors.

The country has initiatives to integrate gender-responsive approaches into climate efforts, including the People's Survival Fund and support to various international collaborations including the Gender Action Plan of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The blue economy roadmap, blue carbon economy, carbon policy regulatory framework, and carbon pricing policy within emission trading systems and voluntary markets.

Meanwhile, director Rachel Gumtang-Remalante from the Securities and Exchange Commission underscored the SEC's pivotal role in driving sustainability reporting among publicly listed companies since 2019.

Recently, they introduced the Sustainability Reporting Form to standardize reporting, striving for uniformity, consistency and comparability of data.

The SEC emphasizes data availability's importance and intends to integrate gender and climate finance investment information into the reporting framework. 

Furthermore, the panel discussion highlighted how gender-responsive climate solutions can be integrated into international climate negotiations and the importance of meaningful stakeholder participation in implementing climate actions.

Leah Pedersen, senior director of market acceleration and design innovation of convergence, shared how they embed gender responsiveness into all their funding and grant processes, acknowledging the importance of transforming communities to enable women, who are most affected by climate transition.

In Asia, they see potential in social forestry/agroforestry models that address justice issues and transform communities while impacting climate finance.