Eight in 10 of the energy stakeholders in the Philippines consider security of energy supply as the top concern of their organizations, results of a study released by global professional services company GHD showed.
This developed as the Department of Energy (DOE) said the country’s energy transition is gearing towards a “just transition” which must occur over a reasonable period and should also not compromise economic growth.
Based on GHD’s study, the proportion of stakeholders which consider security of energy supply as their main concern is higher than the global average of 75 percent.
The study said seven in 10 Philippines energy leaders or 71 percent declared their organizations “are feeling more pressure than ever” from customers looking to reduce their emissions as 79 percent stated the current energy supply crisis has accelerated their investments in renewable energy.
The GHD study showed 76 percent of Philippine energy leaders “point to community opposition as being one of the biggest barriers to getting new energy projects that could help tackle the crisis approved and off the ground.”
“The Philippines is facing a rapid energy transition and is charting a course into new energy territories with changing energy blends. As a net importer of energy, the Philippines is vulnerable to supply shocks. There is a need for integrated solutions that provide energy security and reduce emissions at the same time as generating low-cost power to fuel continued economic growth. For example, many of the country’s 8,000 islands are dependent on diesel generators — which can be progressively replaced with renewable micro-grids,” said Lucas Blight, GHD Future Energy Leader for Asia, in a statement.
In a separate venue, Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla said the government is in full support of the efforts to transition to cleaner energy sources but emphasized the need for the process to be something that will not burden “an already overburdened Philippine population.”
“We cannot compromise economic growth in addressing the needs of more than 20 percent of the Philippine population which remain below the poverty line… Therefore, transition, the climate transition, in order to be just, must occur over a reasonable period of time. It cannot occur overnight,” Lotilla said at an energy forum hosted by the Embassy of Sweden in Taguig City, yesterday.
The DOE noted the need to take full advantage of all sources of energy that are currently in place and use them in a “wise manner” including coal-fired power plants and liquefied natural gas.
“What are the implications for our coal-fired power plants? Definitely there is no way of denying that we need them still but we placed them in a trajectory that is clear, that overtime they are going to be replaced. We suffer under no illusion that we can simply in order to meet the desire to reduce GHG emissions that we will be able to close them down overnight. The growth in demand will be replaced with RE and more efficient power plants and greener sources of energy,” Lotilla said.
