ASEAN says climate initiatives could count as investment portfolio
THE Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) stated that nationally determined contributions (NDCs) could be used as investment portfolios to attract global capital.
In a press statement on Sunday, the ASEAN noted that the NDCs, which refers to the initiatives taken by each nation to meet the climate targets under the Paris Agreement, could be used to attract investments.
“NDCs should be repositioned as investment portfolios,” United Nations Development Programme Resident Representative in the Philippines Christophe Bahuet said during the panel discussion on climate Finance Priorities, Adaptation Finance Strategies and Tracking Tools.
During the discussion, the Philippines’ Climate Change Expenditure Tagging (CCET) system has been declared as a model for climate budget tracking, noting that such a measure promotes transparency to climate spending.
The CCET refers to the government’s practice of coding expenditures that are classified for climate change measures pursuant to a joint 2013 order issued by the Department of Budget and Management and the Climate Change Commission.
The session concluded with the recommendations of a digitized and automated climate tracking, as seen from Indonesia’s Connect Dashboard and expanding the CCET “to reduce information asymmetry, maximize budget impact and make results visible to investors.”
The ASEAN Climate Week 2026, which ran from April 27 to May 1, covered exchanges between participating countries on biodiversity, climate interlinkages, loss and damage, climate economy modeling, and finance. — Kaela Patricia B. Gabriel
