Last June 21, 2023, WWF-Philippines, along with its technical partner ICLEI Southeast Asia Secretariat (ICLEI SEAS), organized a workshop that also served as the launching activity for the 15 Philippine Cities that are a part of the One Planet Cities (OPC) 2023-2024 program, namely, (1) Baguio City, (2) Catbalogan City, (3) Davao City, (4) Dipolog City, (5) Legazpi City, (6) Makati City, (7) Muntinlupa City (8) Naga City, Cam. Sur, (9) Ormoc City, (10) Puerto Princesa City, (11) San Carlos City, Negros Occ., (12) San Fernando City, La Union, (13) Santa Rosa City, (14) Tagum City and (15) Zamboanga City. As part of their engagement, these local government units are also participating in WWF’s global friendly competition for cities called the One Planet City Challenge (OPCC) - a biennial activity that aims to develop and disseminate best practices in the fields of climate mitigation and adaptation.

More than 30 city representatives from these partner cities attended this one-day event entitled, “Maximizing Benefits for Collaborative Urban Climate Actions and Data Transparency”, and it aimed not only to provide updated information about the program, but to also equip the attendees with relevant knowledge on low-carbon development, urban resilience as well as the importance of reporting climate mitigation and adaptation actions.

Providing the welcoming remarks for the inception workshop was Ms. Magaly C. Monterde from the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP). She has stated that the organization fully supports cities in mainstreaming their climate agendas, such as climate-proofing infrastructure, renewable energy, mobility plans beyond bikes, and others, including joining friendly competitions such as OPCC. Additionally, LCP is ready to help Philippine cities address climate change through technical or funding assistance.

Atty. Gia Ibay shared the critical findings from the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and its relevance for the Philippines. The report acts as a warning that despite the current efforts, we are still off-track in tackling climate change. However, there is hope because there are now multiple, feasible, and effective actions in mitigating and adapting to climate change. 

Following this, Ms. Imee Bellen provided the results of the previously ended cycle of OPC 2021-2022 and discussed the new changes in the OPC 2023-2024 cycle, including the timeline and stages of the OPCC. The updated technical framework and scoring criteria to be used in the data evaluation were presented by Ms. Julia Basangan, who emphasized the significance of cities' data reporting for this cycle’s scoring. 

ICLEI SEAS then shared about the CDP-ICLEI Track, the online reporting platform that will be utilized for OPCC. They have also provided relevant knowledge for the city representatives about measuring GreenHouse Gas (GHG) Emissions and Reduction and setting Science-Based Targets (SBTs). Additionally, a discussion on Urban Nature-Based Solutions was conducted, which emphasized that by protecting our ecosystems, both biodiversity and humans benefit against societal challenges.

Beyond learning from the speakers, the cities were also given the opportunity to learn from one another. Dipolog City, the OPCC 2021-2022 National Winner, shared the city’s experience in joining the global initiative that also showed how a 3rd class component city can inspire the rest of the cities nationwide. A “Tour de Table” portion of the program also opened the floor for all the attending cities to express their challenges in implementing climate actions and, most importantly, effective strategies that each other can also replicate or learn from. Conversation on funding sources, stakeholder engagement, enabling policies/ordinances, and rolling out of IEC activities were amongst the highlights of this city-to-city interaction.

Hopefully, through these interactions, the cities can help one another in reaching the collective goal of limiting the warming of the planet to 1.5C. 

At its closing, the attendees were reminded about the August 31, 2023 deadline to submit their climate data for their OPCC participation through the CDP-ICLEI Track. Initial results will be released to them by WWF on October 1 through a “Gap Report,” which will contain comments and suggestions that they can use to revise their report for final submission happening on October 31, 2023.