Oxford University launched at the COP29 Meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan, the Climate Policy Monitor, a granular survey of 30 major countries’ climate-related policies and their effectiveness in mitigating climate change. The study was developed by researchers at the University of Oxford through pro-bono partnerships with 48 leading law firms, including SyCipLaw, which provided data and analysis on the Philippines’ climate policies.

The Climate Policy Monitor evaluates national regulations in three key domains:

1.Climate-related Disclosure:Obligations on companies and financial institutions to report the risks of climate change, their contributions, and relevant policies.2.Transition Planning:Rules that require companies to outline steps to align with climate goals.3.Public Procurement:Rules that align government spending with climate goals.

The Monitor found increasing regulatory activity across major economies but also noted gaps:

• Indisclosure, 17 jurisdictions mandate companies to disclose emissions across their entire value chains (so called ‘Scope 3' emissions). As well, 17 jurisdictions—including China, Japan, Turkey, Australia, and the US—regulate companies’ global footprints, imposing regulatory requirements on suppliers around the world.• Rules that require companies to lay out their transition planning (the steps they will take to meet their climate pledges) are increasingly being used to counteract ‘greenwashing’ (making pledges without saying how they will be achieved). However, many of these rules remain soft. Only 20% of regulations require companies to actually implement their plans.• While there has been a big uptick in requirements to align government procurement spending with climate goals—with new rules coming into play since 2023 now covering a collective procurement spend across 17 jurisdictions of USD $9.7 trillion —a lack of clear standards on how to operationalize these requirements means the effectiveness of these rules remains in question.

The Monitor’s findings support the work of the UN Taskforce on Net Zero Policy. It will be regularly updated and will be expanded to further domains and jurisdictions next year.

The SyCipLaw lawyers who worked on the Philippine section are Jose Florante M. Pamfilo, partner, Catherina M. Fernandez, special counsel, and associates Rafael Miguel A. Hernandez, Reina Marie M. Cayanong, Franco Luis G. Lopez, Lourd Marc Andrew D. Parong, and Patricia E. Ramos.

More information is available atwww.climatepolicymonitor.ox.ac.uk. The section on the Philippines is accessible here:https://climatepolicymonitor.ox.ac.uk/jurisdictions/philippines