What will make public-private partnerships on climate change work?

David Lozada

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What will make public-private partnerships on climate change work?
Speaking to development professionals and members of the academe, Dr Glen Anderson asks, 'Can you really separate mitigation and adaptation from good development practice?'

MANILA, Philippines – “There are things the private sector can do better than the public sector.”

Speaking to development professionals and members of the academe, this was how Dr Glen Anderson of grant facilitator Engility, started his presentation on the importance of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in addressing development in the face of climate change.

According to Anderson, who is Chief of Party of Climate Change Resilient Development (CCRD) of the company, there are two ways in which the private sector or businesses can help build more disaster resilient communities.

First is that they can produce more cost-effective goods and services that can be used by the public sector before, during, and after disasters. Second is to facilitate better financing of investments that focus on promoting disaster resiliency. 

“(This will help) avoid public borrowing and give private businesses more money to fill financing gaps where there is not enough money available in the public sector,” Anderson added.

Importance of the private sector

According to Anderson, the private sector has not been tapped in climate change negotiations despite the big role they play in development. This changed, however, when PPPs became a topic of discussion in the 2013 United Nations Conference on Climate Change held in Warsaw. (READ: End of UN climate talks breaks fast for PH envoy)

“It was noted officially that business is increasingly needed to recognize opportunities for innovation and investment resulting from climate change as well as the risks that their own companies will bear in their operations in developing and developed countries,” Anderson said.

For every dollar of official US government assistance in a developing country, developing countries also receive $3 in remittances. There is $5 of capital investment for every dollar of aid, $1 in private philanthropy. 

“The private sector is a major player. The official government aid makes way for other funds to be given to countries,” he said.

“The potential role of the private sector in climate change is mitigation through the mitigation of green house gases, and investing on energy efficiency and sustainable energy,” he added.

By 2020, it is expected that the annual global investment needed to deal with climate change mitigation and adaptation will be $150 to $475 billion a year. Developed countries only committed up to $100 billion to fund mitigation practices. 

“There’s gonna be a very large gap in financing. Hopefully, the private sector can help fill this in,” according to Anderson.

The private sector, Anderson added, should shift it’s focus from funding development projects to climate change issues.

“Is there really a lot of difference between PPPs to deal with climate change issues and PPPs for development? Can you really separate mitigation and adaptation from good development practice?” he asked.

Finding ‘champions’

As with every partnership, a lot of challenges face PPPs, the biggest of which is sustainability since a lot of partnerships involve projects that have a life time of 3-5 years. 

“If a project ends, the donor’s and contractor’s commitment is over, and you haven’t established a clear relationship between the government beneficiary and the private company, the thing may fall apart before it is completed,” Anderson said.

Communications specialist Diwata Paredes, who served as one of the panelists, said the issue of sustainability can be addressed by looking for “champion” organizations, or those who will continue the advocacy long before the project has ended. 

“The government will always be there. The private sector will always be there. But we have to look for individual organization champions for such an advocacy so that action will continue even after the project,” Paredes said.

She added that finding champions from civil society is important because unlike government officials, they are not limited by their terms in office. 

“There should always be an understanding between partners on what they can contribute for the moment, or if this will be an evolving partnership as the partners go along,” Paredes added.

Think long term

Anderson said PPPs should be embedded in long term strategies for it to work. 

“You have to know your long term strategy and make sure your PPP won’t detract you from your long term plan,” he added.

Though formal partnerships always work, working with the community also goes a long way as this helps businesses and organizations understand the problem they are trying to address.

“We should be creative in PPPs, not only through formal but also informal partnerships. We want to be flexible by involving the academe, the public, and NGOs. Collaboration is a valuable tool and will certainly be needed in climate change,” Anderson concluded.

The forum was conducted as part of the DevEx Manila Partnerships Forum (DMPF) on Tuesday, June 11. Attended by various non-governmental organizations and international aid groups, the DMPF discussed pressing global development issues and provided an avenue for collaboration among the participants. – Rappler.com

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