The Climate Change Commission (CCC) has ongoing discussions with an environmental consulting service for possible collaboration to promote the development of carbon emission-reducing projects in the Philippines.

In a news release Tuesday, the CCC reported that Guangzhou Iceberg Environmental Consulting Services general manager Ji Bao made a courtesy call to Commissioner Albert dela Cruz to propose possible partnerships that would enhance the country’s initiatives in carbon reduction.

Ji said these could be achieved through projects like forestry carbon sinks, hydropower and wind power stations and biogas utilization.

He cited that the model of promoting global carbon reduction through market mechanisms has been gradually established over the past three decades from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992, to the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, and then to the Paris Agreement in 2015.

“After the government officially announced the dual carbon goals last year, ‘carbon emissions trading’ quickly became a buzzword and before that, a number of pioneers had already started to practice it, including Guangzhou,” he said.

Dela Cruz welcomed the idea of promoting carbon emission-reducing projects as they run in parallel with the Philippine government’s target of achieving net zero carbon neutrality.

Zero carbon neutrality refers to the emission of zero carbon by companies from the beginning, hence, there is no carbon to be offset.

One example of this is company buildings transitioning to solar energy sources.

This helps the country achieve a climate-positive environment where additional carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere.

“While much of the global economy has committed to reaching net-zero emissions, a closer look has yet to be done on how Philippine businesses can take concrete actions and veer away from potential green wash,” dela Cruz said.

“This can be done by forging partnerships and the exchange of know-how and technologies as well as financial sources that would accelerate our private sector in its net-zero journey of achieving carbon neutrality as a transition to net zero by 2050,” he added. (PNA)