On 4 March 2025, the UN Global Compact Network Philippines held its 8th General Assembly in Makati City. The event marked the election of the 2025 Board of Trustees and brought together business leaders, sustainability advocates, and partner organizations in a shared commitment to responsible business practices and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
A key highlight of the program was the keynote address of Secretary Robert E.A. Borje, Vice Chair and Executive Director of the Climate Change Commission, who delivered a powerful call for business leadership in the face of the climate crisis. His full remarks are shared below:
Full Keynote Message from Secretary Robert E.A. Borje
Members of the Board of the UN Global Compact Network in the Philippines, distinguished business leaders, colleagues, good afternoon.
“2024 was a masterclass in climate destruction.”
Those are not my words, but of Mr. Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General and the Chair of the UN Global Compact. This was probably one of the most quoted statements from his speech at the 29th Conference of the Parties in Azerbaijan, held November of last year.
These powerful words resounded strongly across the conference halls, echoing the calls for urgent and ambitious climate action that many champions, advocates, and countries – including the Philippines – have already been clamoring, perhaps since the global international debates on climate began many years ago.
The Philippines has been a case study for such a masterclass. In 2024, the country experienced an unprecedented six typhoons within just four weeks, affecting a total of 13 million Filipinos. Each typhoon brought torrential rains and storm surges, packing maximum sustained winds of 240 kilometers per hour. No less than the Japan Meteorological Agency has said that the simultaneous occurrence of these named storms in the Pacific has never been seen since 1951.
Climate change has exacerbated both the frequency of occurrence and impacts of such disasters such as typhoons and other extreme weather events, where we now see critical sectors in our food systems, for example, bearing the brunt of such impacts. Agricultural livelihoods are now increasingly under stress; coastal communities and our marine biodiversity now face the constant threat of rising sea levels and increasing sea temperatures. The uncertain, if not bleak, future for millions of Filipinos depending on these systems both for livelihood and sustenance are now unfolding before our eyes.
The Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change or IPCCC highlighted the need for urgent and ambitious action in addressing the challenges posed by climate change. The report provided the compelling, science-based argument on the occurrence of global warming and the imminent catastrophic and irreversible impacts if countries did not act now. The IPCC gave a climate warming threshold of just 1.5. It also identified a carbon emission reduction of 43% by 2030, if the global economy worked its way to prevent the breaching of this threshold.
A case study for leadership and international accountability
The Philippines, as a vulnerable, developing nation that faces high climate risk, is uniquely placed to make a call for ambitious climate action and forge a path towards a climate resilient, sustainable future.
The Philippine Development Plan of 2023–2028 clearly spells out the country’s resolve to push for ambitious climate action. It lays down the plan to achieve a low-carbon economy, founded on green technology innovations, climate-smart infrastructure, and energy-efficient urban transport systems. Our Nationally Determined Contribution, or NDC, which forms part of our commitment to the Paris Agreement, is set at 75% reduction and avoidance of greenhouse gas emissions for the 2020–2030 period in the sectors of agriculture, waste, industrial processes, transport, and energy.
To this, the Philippines being a “case study” for 2024 continues, this time, as a model for strong national leadership amplifying the country’s voice on the global stage, pushing for international accountability from all countries that have signified their commitment to the Paris Agreement.
Last year, the Philippines has completed in under a year two landmark national plans: the Nationally Determined Contribution Implementation Plan or the NDCIP, and the National Adaptation Plan or NAP.
The NDCIP sets out a roadmap of actions for implementing the country’s NDC focusing on sector-level actions and needs. It outlines policies and measures to reduce emissions in five sectors: agriculture, waste, industry, transport, and energy. Subsequently, it provides critical “investments-and-avoidance convergence points,” allowing the country to clearly plot its pathway to a green, low-carbon economy.
The Philippines’ NAP, the third among the ASEAN nations to be submitted to the UNFCCC, aims to “steadily reduce climate-related loss and damage and build the country’s adaptive capacity towards transformative resilience and sustainable economic development by 2050.” It identifies eight (8) key adaptation priorities and strategies acting as reference points to support decision-making on adaptation actions at a localized level.
“These national plans were developed with, and envisioned for, a whole-of-society, whole-of-nation approach.”
Climate change has exacerbated both the frequency of occurrence and impacts of such disasters such as typhoons and other extreme weather events, where we now see critical sectors in our food systems, for example, bearing the brunt of such impacts. Agricultural livelihoods are now increasingly under stress; coastal communities and our marine biodiversity now face the constant threat of rising sea levels and increasing sea temperatures. The uncertain, if not bleak, future for millions of Filipinos depending on these systems both for livelihood and sustenance are now unfolding before our eyes.
The Role of the Private Sector
To this, the role of the private sector in the implementation of the NDC and in building a climate-resilient, green economy, is critical. 2024 data show that private sector in the Philippines account for 93% of the country’s GDP. Meanwhile, 2020 Philippines emissions data reveal that businesses contribute GHG emissions through energy consumption as the top emitting sector, followed by transportation, and industrial operations.
From Ambition to Action to Ambition: the Loop Continues
We therefore recognize the crucial work of the United Nations Global Compact and its Local Network in the Philippines in guiding businesses towards adopting business models that are 1.5-degree compliant, and for putting at the forefront a proven value proposition: that businesses, acting on the urgency of climate change now, are best placed to thrive in a global economy as it transitions to a net-zero future by 2050.
Many of you present here have been staunch supporters and partners of the Climate Change Commission.
We recognize Ayala Corporation and its business units Globe and BPI, Metro Pacific Investments Corporation, Nestle Philippines, Aboitiz, SMIC, whose subsidiary company SM Prime is a main partner for the Philippine Resilience Awards.
What is more worthy of recognition is the fact that many of the trailblazers present here now have been on the path to sustainable business, value creation, and climate action, soon after the Philippine Government has made its commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals and to the Paris Agreement in 2015. The founding of the UN Global Compact Network Philippines in 2016, is a testament to this.
This 2025, we foresee a milestone year for both the Philippine Government and the private sector working together: the opportunities for mutual accountabilities in driving the achievement of the country’s climate goal are here, with both the NAP and the NDCIP commencing their respective localization and implementation across sectors and geographic areas.
The Climate Change Commission offers our partners in the private sector three engagement pathways that will sustain mutual accountabilities – a “loop of action and ambition” for both:
Engage-To-Leverage: This forms CCC’s bilateral partnerships with the private sector – anchored on the respective relative advantages of CCC and its partner. This focuses on technical offerings such as knowledge and capacity building, policy development and review, carbon sequestration measurement, projections, and others.
Lead-To-Shape: This is CCC’s system of “contact groups” comprised of private sector’s CONNECT or Communicating Opportunities to Network, Navigate, and Explore Climate Transformation, and civil society’s WECAN – Working to Empower Climate Action Network. The contact groups serve as knowledge and action platforms aimed at (1) raising private sector ambition in transforming the core of their business strategy from corporate social responsibility towards creating wide-ranging impacts across and down their value chain, (2) programme cohesion in civil society interventions on the ground, and (3) private sector and civil society voice in discourse-building aimed at shaping and informing national policies and agenda.
Influence-To-Act: Campaigns and Social Mobilization – these are CCC’s short- to medium-term high-visibility, social mobilization activities that bring together climate champions and the larger community to work towards climate actions (e.g., CCC Week Solidarity Night and Champions Recognition Night)
These pathways are envisioned to provide a more concrete platform for both the CCC and the private sector to collaborate, working upstream to inform national policymaking and positioning in the global debates, and downstream to ensure that investment programmes are aligned with national emission reduction goals, at the same time putting in place a policy and investment environment that provides the private sector the stability and level playing field it needs as the sector transitions to a low carbon, climate resilient economy.
Climate change, without a doubt, is the global governance challenge of our time.
Buhay, kabuhayan, at kinabukasan ng bawat Pilipino ang nakataya sa hamon ng nagbabagong klima.
Each and every Filipino has a role in building a climate resilient, climate-smart Philippines. I am confident that our partners from the private sector will be our co-drivers in achieving this future for all.
Maraming salamat at Magandang hapon po!