The Department of Finance (DOF) is intensifying its push for sustainable finance by expanding the role and membership of the Inter-Agency Technical Working Group on Sustainable Finance (ITSF), commonly known as the Green Force. The move comes as the country gears up for more targeted and transformative implementation of its Sustainable Finance Roadmap heading into 2025.
Co-chaired by the DOF and the Climate Change Commission (CCC), the ITSF is the main body responsible for aligning national green finance policies and shaping a pipeline of climate-aligned investments. To broaden its institutional reach, the DOF has proposed the inclusion of strategic agencies such as the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) and PHILGUARANTEE. These additions aim to create a more holistic financial governance framework that reflects the complexity of climate-related risks and opportunities.
To boost the ITSF’s effectiveness, the DOF will convene quarterly meetings to ensure continuous policy alignment, progress tracking, and cross-agency coordination. A new structural strategy introduces three functional clusters within the ITSF: the Policy Cluster for regulatory coherence, the Financing Cluster for optimizing funding tools, and the Investment Cluster for mobilizing capital into viable green projects.
In support of long-term capacity-building, a new Center of Excellence for Sustainable Finance will also be launched. It will serve as a hub for training, market development, and technical guidance to scale climate-aligned investments.
The ITSF is now calling on government agencies to align their projects with national climate strategies, including the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) and the Nationally Determined Contribution Implementation Plan (NDCIP). A key item under review is the development of a Carbon Market Framework aligned with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.
“Our agenda today is simple—to enable the ITSF to take a more active and targeted role in the development of sustainable finance policies in the country,” said DOF Undersecretary Maria Luwalhati Dorotan Tiuseco.
Other priority initiatives include the formulation of a national Climate Finance Strategy, an updated Sustainable Finance Framework, and new green financing rules under the revised Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Code. These developments reflect a systemic shift toward embedding sustainability into the heart of fiscal governance and economic planning.
