The government is placing Filipinos on the path of more catastrophic climate change due to “meager commitments” in expanding the share of renewable energy (RE) in the country’s power mix, according to the Center for Energy, Ecology and Development (CEED).
The group issued this statement after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. told the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit in Bangkok, Thailand last week the government targets to increase the share of RE in the country’s power generation mix to 35 percent by 2030 and to 50 percent by 2040 from 29.3 percent.
“In aiming to raise our use of RE to only 35 percent by 2030, the government practically abandons any and all hope of keeping the 1.5°C ambition alive. It is sending the message that the majority of our power would still come from coal, gas and other fossil fuels, and thus condemns Filipinos to decades more of pollution, high energy prices and permanently chaotic climate systems,” said Gerry Arances, CEED executive director, in a statement. Citing research from think-tank Climate Analytics, CEED said for the Philippines to align to keeping global temperature rise to no more than 1.5°C from pre-industrial levels by the end of this century, it must phase out its use of coal and gas by 2035 and raise the share of renewables in the power mix to 80 to 83 percent by 2030 towards a full transition by 2040.
“The President claims to acknowledge that the climate crisis is ‘the most pressing existential challenge of our time,’ yet we do not see it reflected, not in our energy plans and not even in the participation of the Philippine government at COP 27 (Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change),” Arances said.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said the Philippine delegation at the COP 27 in Egypt last week proposed to advance positions in particular work streams of the global discussion that would significantly boost the country’s specific needs and priorities.
The Philippines also stressed the need for external support in the form of technology, transfer, capacity-building and financial support.
DENR Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga, said work streams were divided into four categories: loss and damage; adaptation; climate finance; and the inclusion of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions avoidance.
Loyzaga said the Philippines pushed for the adoption of a precise definition of “loss and damage” to include impacts from extreme climate event and slow onset change to cover economic and non-economic losses.
The government also expressed full support to an initiative to formulate a system of predictable financial support including an insurance scheme to affected countries.
The DENR noted earthquakes and typhoons cause an average $3.5 billion per year, which is equivalent to 1 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, in direct losses to public and private assets.
The agency said this could exceed to $33 billion in the next 50 years.
The Philippine delegation at the COP27 also noted climate finance should be complemented by viable and effective technology transfer and country-specific capacity building which must be mobilized towards concrete projects, programs and initiatives.
The Philippines also asserted the need for developed countries to be transparent in reporting their approaches and strategies for scaling up climate finance aside from the inclusion of GHG emission avoidance in the Paris Agreement to operationalize claims of developing countries to the remaining safe carbon budget. – J. Macapagal
