ASEAN Working Group on Climate Change (AWGCC)

In the 8th AWGCC in Yangon, Myanmar in June 2017, the ASEAN member states agreed that partnerships between cities must be established, i.e., ASEAN primary cities can serve as hubs to support capacity-building for smaller cities. In 2017, during the ASEAN's 50th Anniversary, the Philippines served as ASEAN Chair and hosted the ASEAN summit and several working group meetings. During the ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting on the Environment (ASOEN) in Manila in July 2017, the AWGCC, chaired by Singapore, presented the drafts of the ASEAN Joint Statement on Climate Change for the UNFCCC COP and the ASEAN-EU Statement on the Paris Agreement: Reaffirming Commitment to Cooperation to Address the Shared Challenge of Climate Change. The latter was adopted at the Post Ministerial Conference (PMC) +1 Session with the European Union (EU) to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Establishment of ASEAN-EU Dialogue Relations on 6 August 2017 in Manila, Philippines.
The DENR also served as co-chair of the AWGCC in 2017, wherein the group submitted the draft "ASEAN Joint Statement on Climate Change to the 23rd Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP23)," to the ASOEN, to the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on the Environment (AMME), and to the ASEAN Leaders, which led to its adoption in Manila, Philippines on 13 November 2017.
In June 2018, the DENR hosted the 9th AWGCC Meeting and the 1st ASEAN Climate Change Partnership Conference at the ADB Headquarters in Pasig City. This was conducted in coordination with National Environment Agency of Singapore (NEA) as the AWGCC Chair, the ASEAN Secretariat and with support from the ADB and the Hanns Seidel Foundation Indonesia Office. The conference theme, 'Multistakeholder Engagement and Partnerships for a Climate Resilient ASEAN,' recognized the multifaceted climate change issues in ASEAN and served as a venue for exploring cross-sectoral awareness and coordination among ASEAN sectoral bodies and partners in implementing their climate change activities/projects. The meeting provided an opportunity for the adoption of the ASEAN Joint Statement on Climate Change to the 24th Session of the COP to the UNFCCC in Katowice, Poland. The AWGCC meeting also involved discussions on the implementation of the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Blueprint 2025 and the AWGCC Action Plan.