AKP has been leading the way for coordinating national and local CSOs in advocacy for the 2021 and 2026 Philippine NDC. This is in acknowledgment of the significance of reducing climate pollution in achieving national sustainable development goals, and the right of everyone to participate in this process.
WORK ON THE 2021 NDC
During the development of the Philippine NDC, the odds were against AKP. The COVID-19 pandemic has restricted lobbying activities. Some of the high-level policymakers dismissed the voices of CSOs and ignored their role in climate decision-making.
Despite these challenges, AKP and its members maximized the limited opportunities available for engagement. The network conducted a series of online discussions to develop their common positioning, relentlessly lobbied to like-minded officials in the national government, and actively voiced their concerns during the two online multistakeholder consultations.
Due to these efforts, AKP managed to influence the NDC that was submitted to the UNFCCC on 15 April 2021, being responsible for the following features in the document:
- Preventing the country’s greenhouse gas emissions reductions target of the NDC from being set at an unambitious 35% [the target was eventually set at 75%];
- Acknowledgment of the need to strengthen climate change education;
- Recognition of the importance of ecosystems integrity; and
- Upholding the rights of indigenous peoples in the context of climate action.
WORK ON THE 2026 NDC
Learning from the lessons that emerged from the development of the first NDC, AKP adjusted its approach to lobbying for the 2026 NDC. As part of its overarching initiative, it conducted the following activities throughout 2025 and early 2026 regarding the NDC.
Between March and 2025, AKP hosted a total of nine NDC-just transition consultations around the Philippines with multiple partners, covering a wide range of mitigation and social sectors. This initiative contributed to influencing the national government to also hold regional consultations, demonstrating a more genuine embodiment of a “whole-of-nation” approach to climate action.
AKP has directly reached out to more national government agencies to directly bring its NDC positions. Throughout 2025, the network held meetings with the likes of the Department of Agriculture, Department of Transportation, and the Department of Energy to present its calls for policies and measures to be added to the updated climate pledge, with an emphasis on the perspectives of children and youth.
AKP effectively led the coordination of CSO representatives during the two multistakeholder consultations on the NDC updating, held by the Climate Change Commission on December 2024 and December 2025. Its members voiced concerns about the inclusivity of the updating process, the need for genuine decarbonization and urgent transition away from fossil fuels, and the inclusion of the forestry and other land use sector in the next NDC.
AKP also informs members of the House of Representatives Committee on Climate Change on the latest developments on the NDC updating process. This is as part of the network’s advocacy regarding proposed legislation that would enable the implementation of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement in the Philippine context, and improving the allocation of the national budget for climate action.
Aksyon Klima Pilipinas 