The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) - Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) through its Climate Change Division (CCD) and Solid Waste Management Division (SWMD), and the multi-agency National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC), in coordination with the Climate Change Commission (CCC), has been involved in developing the National Strategy to reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (SLCP) from the Municipal Solid Waste (MSWM) Sector with technical assistance from the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) under the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC).

This national SLCP strategy could be the first of its kind in Asia; existing ones are the SLCP strategies of Canada, Mexico, and California, which cover all sectors to address SLCPs. Since the Philippines intends to develop a national SLCP strategy that is specific for the MSW sector, this document could be the first in the world for a specific focus on the waste sector.

The development of the national strategy is a multi-stakeholder participatory process executed by DENR/NSWMC. A core group of experts (CGE) provides inputs into the strategy composed of experts from NSWMC Committee on Climate Change/SLCP, CCC, DENR/EMB, select local government units (LGUs), IGES/CCAC, and others including the academe and research institutions. To date, a series of consultation workshops and training had been organized, including the first national awareness workshop on SLCP on November 23, 2017 in Quezon City, and the (international) regional training workshop on measuring and mitigating SLCP from MSWM on April 2-4, 2018 in Bacolod City.

The Philippine government is currently preparing a roadmap for its INDC/NDC and has so far institutionalized its Philippine Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory, Management, and Reporting System. For the waste sector, the SLCP strategy development process quantifies climate pollutants through a life cycle analysis (LCA) perspective. It encompasses other sources such as waste collection and recycling of non-biodegradables. Another value-added is the analysis of the black carbon (BC) emissions from MSWM.

Thus, the first focus group discussion (FGD) on the development of the national strategy to reduce SLCPs from the MSW sector was conducted on September 5-7, 2018. The first FGD aimed at the following:

• CGE provide technical expertise in identifying the root cause of SLCPs from MSW in the Philippines;
• Review existing national SLCP strategies and propose a working outline for the Philippine MSW sector;
• Propose nationwide strategic measures to prevent/reduce emissions from the life cycle of MSW management based on the:
  • results of the national baseline and alternative scenarios generated using the IGES Emission Quantification Tool (EQT),
  • harmonized targets, policies, plans, and programs of the government and private sector, including but not limited to, development, climate, and sectoral targets.
• Consolidate main contents to come up with the first draft of the National Strategy to Reduce SLCPs from the MSW sector.