Another low hanging-fruit that would have great impact for the Philippines is the pursuit of sustainable finance. The Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has already taken the first and commendable step requiring banks to create a 3-year sustainable finance (Sustainable Finance Framework) transition plan. The UN IPCC aims to turn down the heat on our planet! Doing this would require a systemic change on how we power our economy. While we are gaining milestones on many fronts in our journey towards sustainable energy and renewable energy sources, financing remains to be the biggest gap and opportunity. Public policy may be sweetened by incentives that would accelerate technology and industry shifts driving this, both from the financing side but perhaps also from the consumer side.

     We need to motivate every capable ‘Juan’ to make the shift – to install solar panels on their roofs, buy hybrid or full electric cars, or make other shifts to renewable or green technologies in business or personal lives – to achieve the scale we need in order to create the collective impact we are aspiring for when it comes to reduing our GHG emissions. We need to give incentives for businesses to make the shifts and bring in technology that can provide this shift. For now, we are relying on the good intention of the consumer. and entrepreneur. In many countries, even consumers are motivated to make the shift to electric vehicles through incentives such as less taxes or rebates – simply to make people jump ship.