The Department of Finance (DOF) is eyeing the possible role of foreign governments in fast tracking the decommissioning and repurposing of coal-fired power plants, especially where overseas companies have a significant stake in the continued operations of these facilities, according to a statement released by the agency yesterday.
Carlos Dominguez, DOF secretary, raised the possibility of foreign governments buying out the shareholdings of their respective citizens with substantial shareholdings in corporations running coal-fired power plants in the Philippines.
The proceeds from the would-be buyout can then be donated to help mobilize funds for the finance vehicle created for the Philippines under the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM) initiative, which aims to accelerate the transition from coal to clean energy of Southeast Asian countries like the Philippines, Dominguez said.
“If we can get the foreign governments to buy out those shareholders and donate the shares of that company to a government — to our government — or to a group, including ADB and other agencies, we can actually shut down that plant. And that foreign government would actually be making a contribution to reducing a coal-fired power plant,” Dominguez said during the recent Green Finance Session jointly hosted by Time Magazine Singapore and the Philippines’ DOF in Glasgow, Scotland.
Dominguez said employees operating coal-fired plants up for decommissioning will be retrained to work in other energy projects.
He cited, for instance, a coal plant in Mindanao that is among those up for decommissioning under the partnership forged by the Philippines and ADB through the new ETM facility.
“First of all, there are not a lot of people actually working in that particular coal-fired power plant, or in any coal-fired power plant. So it’s very easy to retrain them to do other projects,” Dominguez said.
The ETM is a public-private finance vehicle that aims to both reduce coal-fired power generation through accelerated plant retirement and boost the growth of renewable energy using an equitable, scalable and market-based approach. – Angela Celis
