The Philippines opted to support select declarations in the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow to assure the country of energy security while gradually transitioning to more sustainable sources, according to the Department of Energy (DOE).
But environment advocates said this is no more than an “empty gesture.”
DOE Secretary Alfonso Cusi said the Philippines on Friday joined more than 40 countries at COP26 (UN Climate Change Conference) that have committed to shift away from the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel.
Cusi said the world’s largest emitters like China, the United States and India were absent from the deal.
“We cannot behave like developed economies since we are a developing country.
Nonetheless, we remain committed to a gradual transition to renewable energy. Immediate transition will entail additional cost so we must strike a healthy balance in protecting our consumers and our economy and our quest for a cleaner environment,” Cusi said.
The DOE supported declarations to commit to work together on the following: to make clean power the most affordable and accessible option globally to build back better from the pandemic; to rapidly scale up deployment of clean power generation and energy efficiency measures; to rapidly scale up technologies and policies in this decade; to strengthen domestic and international efforts to provide a framework of financial, technical and social support to affected workers; and to convince more economies to join efforts to accelerate the global energy transition over the coming years.
While supporting said declarations, Cusi reiterated the government’s call for “climate justice,” noting the Philippines is not a major emitter of greenhouse gases but bears the worsening impact of climate change.
DOE Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella sad the country does not immediately commit to anything that does not fall into the strategies under the Philippine Energy Plan (PEP).
Based on the PEP 2020-2040, the DOE seeks to make RE account for 35 percent of the Philippine energy mix by 2030 and 50 percent by 2040.
Signatories to the COP26 agreement agreed to phase out coal-fired power generation in the 2030s for richer countries and in the 2040s for poorer nations.
Fuentebella also said even if Western economies fail to meet their financing pledge to climate-vulnerable countries, the Philippines moved with urgency in implementing climate mitigation and adaptation initiatives.
The Center for Energy, Ecology and Development (CEED), said the Philippines’ failure to commit on policies to end the use of coal energy makes it an “empty gesture.”
CEED warned this put at risk the country’s position to demand for more financing and technological resources from developed nations.
Greenpeace Philippines denounced the government’s lack of political will to end coal use.
“The DOE’s delusions it can have its cake and eat it too–transition away from coal power and shift to RE, without ending coal investments or phasing out coal power–is utterly ridiculous. It also reveals that the government has no intention of veering away from its fossil fuel trajectory,” said Khevin Yu, Greenpeace Philippines’ campaigner, in a statement.
Yu said the DOE should ramp up its commitment to phase out coal by revising the PEP and increase the country’s renewable energy target to 50 percent by as early as 2030 while stopping all plans for fossil gas and improving the grid to cater more utility-scale solar and wind projects.
Data from the DOE show total installed capacity of all power plants in the country in 2009 was at 15,610 megawatts (MW) and jumped by over 68 percent to 26,286 MW in 2020.
In a span of 12 years, the combined share of RE power plants composed of geothermal, hydro, biomass, solar and wind projects went up by 44 percent to 7,653 MW from 5,309 MW.
However, for the similar period, coal was also consistent as the biggest fuel source with a total installed generation of 4,277 MW in 2009, jumping by 155 percent to 10,944 MW in 2020.
