[OPINION] 2025 exposed climate governance as flooded in ‘business as usual’

It was too good to be true.

The year 2025 was supposed to be the most critical year of climate action in history. After the previous 12 months that convinced Filipinos that the climate crisis is a daily reality instead of being seasonal, the government needed to really step up and show the kind of leadership that a vulnerable nation truly needs.

This year also marked the 10th anniversary of the Paris climate agreement and the halfway point of the decade toward achieving the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals. The intensification of global warming and shortcomings in attaining our own economic targets only made every action taken more significant. (READ: Where are we now on the Paris Agreement, a decade after it was adopted?)

Heading into this year, there were so many policies to be crafted, strategies to be updated, and milestones to be hit. As it played out, ambition was not translated into enough action. And we all know why.

‘Filipino time’

Unknown to many Filipinos, a lot of our climate plans, which would ultimately shape their lives, livelihoods, and futures, were attempted to be created or updated in 2025. But as is known to all Filipinos, the figurative procession was too long, so it did not reach the church.

Many of these were initially intended to be finished by November, in time to be presented during the 30th UN climate negotiations (COP30) in Brazil. This was an ideal platform for the country to showcase its innovative practices, bankable projects, and strong policymaking initiative to the world.

These included updating the Nationally Determined Contribution, or the country’s commitment to reducing its climate pollution; the framework for a nationwide just transition to a low-emissions economy; and the approach to establishing domestic carbon markets and aligning with global ones.

Yet none of these were finalized by COP30 as expectations were once again overwhelmed by the usual issues in governance. We have heard many reasons for the delays: the lack of capacity to conduct the work that resulted in the involvement of development banks and UN agencies, revisions of calculated targets, high-level officials not yet giving their signatures, and so on.

The government now conveniently frames some of these delayed milestones to be launched instead in 2026 as the Philippines chairs ASEAN. Yet as the criticality for climate action increases, so does the imperative to get the details right and avoid counterproductive outcomes. The balancing act of urgency and diligence does not get any easier, which makes the delays understandable — but only to an extent.

Not when some agencies mislead the public to satisfy some agenda. Not when anyone not part of the government is only consulted instead of being treated as co-designers or co-implementors of climate solutions, unless they have wealth or brand recognition.

For the culture of Philippine governance filled with bold pronouncements and the framing of making history, what Filipinos need now is a grounded, inclusive approach to address complex problems of the present and genuinely responding to both immediate and long-term needs of the most vulnerable communities.

Instead, we have seen with our own eyes just how out of touch many in the government really are. Just look at 2026’s potential national budget.  

Business as usual

This year began with the current administration supposedly allotting more than P1 trillion from the national budget for climate action, more than twice from 2024. It was presented as a response to a 2024 that saw the Philippines be battered by almost every climate extreme — from heatwaves to typhoons in succession.

Yet the truth is this “climate budget” is not as aligned with our own national priorities in responding to this crisis. Almost 90% of this went to physical infrastructure projects, including flood control projects, instead of a higher allocation for protecting and restoring forests and other ecosystems that continue to be damaged, partially as the government caters to the whims of big businesses here and abroad.

The “climate budget” is also tainted by corruption in many of these flood control projects, an issue that many have forgotten was already being scrutinized before this year. 2025 is almost over, yet there remains limited progress in the investigations.

So far, the only notable effects of all the exposés, finger-pointing, and name-shaming are a slight decrease in the 2026 flood control budget, a decline in the trust ratings of the President, bits of progress in transparency, and revealing fractures within the anti-corruption movement.

The proposed 2026 budget remains largely as climate-aligned only in name as the previous one, but Congress seems intent to pass it anyway. On that note, the bill enabling the Philippines to host the Loss and Damage Fund Board aside, how many genuine climate-related bills has the Senate passed in the past three years?

Translation: For all the talk about not being business as usual anymore in addressing the climate crisis, corruption, or almost any issue, not much has really changed.

When will we have a government that prioritizes preventing empty stomachs instead of fulfilling the appetites of investors?

When will we have high-level officials who will stop dodging civil society and community leaders like they are not worth even talking to?

When will we have leaders that will enact reforms to genuinely build a better nation, instead of only doing them for political survival?

It took extreme rain and flooding, signs of the wrath of a nature scorned by pollution and greed, to turn the inconvenient into the undeniable. What 2025 has shown us is that no matter how much corruption and incompetence want to hide behind the misguided notion of development, the reality of the climate crisis will always expose the truth right in front of us.

No matter how hard the elite try to own our environment, nature will always remind them of their place in this world. Unfortunately, those reminders come in the form of extremes that disproportionately affect the marginalized.

Whether abroad or in our own country, climate injustice remains. We have been reminded. We have been warned. The truth is right in front of us. But when will we learn? – Rappler.com

John Leo Algo is the national coordinator of Aksyon Klima Pilipinas and the deputy executive director of Living Laudato Si’ Philippines. He currently functions as the de facto coordinating lead for Philippine civil society groups in national and multilateral climate governance.