The Manila Times

Strictly enforce regulations

A good place to start would be to strictly enforce already existing regulations and guidelines for environmental impact assessments. These have been increasingly shortcut in recent years in the name of infrastructure development and economic recovery, including in some high-profile development proposals such as San Miguel Corp.’s Pasig River Expressway. This should be an easy step, as it simply requires the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and other responsible agencies to do their jobs according to established specifications.

Another avenue would be to tighten up requirements for disclosures of sustainability plans for SEC-registered and listed companies. The Philippine Stock Exchange is implementing some directives along these lines, but these should be expanded. Likewise, the banking sector can help to encourage better climate action strategies by including sustainability in credit assessments for property development and construction loans. Getting the banks to do this will likely require directions from the Bangko Sentral, the conservative nature of Philippine banks being what it is, but if just one would do so, the rest would follow.

Opinion

en-ph

2023-04-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-04-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://manilatimes.pressreader.com/article/281625309566140

The Manila Times