The Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) has urged the government to rethink its strategy on continuing reliance to coal-fired power projects for a stable power supply.
Redentor Constantino, ICSC executive director, issued the statement after President Duterte said he will allow more coal-fired power plants for the next 30 years as solar technology is still unsustainable.
“Importing and burning more coal would not help the Philippines build back better. Coal is a losing proposition. In the country, new coal is a threat to grid stability and public interest if we do not take steps to protect the economy from the terminal decline of coal as a power source. If companies are foolish enough to pursue this course, the company itself, rather than working families and small businesses, should wholly bear the risks,” Constantino said.
If the government will still allow the entry of new coal power plants, he said supply agreements from such sources must remove clauses that allow fluctuations in fuel cost and foreign exchange rates in order to protect consumers.
“Any additional costs and risks are simply passed along to the consumer without regulatory intervention and imported coal prices will likely continue to rise, as they have largely done for the past two years,” Constantino added.
He said government must consider the fact that global capital is veering away from funding coal projects.
Constantino said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas recently released a new finance framework for pricing climate and transition risk and valuing climate-resilient and low-carbon opportunities.
“Speeding up the shift to renewable and decentralized energy would improve energy access, lower power bills and avoid pollution in the long run, all of which would help families cope with the impacts of the lockdown and usher in a better normal. It would also attract investments and create new jobs, and reduce our reliance on expensive, polluting and imported coal and diesel,” the ICSC said.
As of end-2019, the country has a total installed on-grid capacity of 25,531 megawatts (MW), 7,399 MW of which are from RE sources comprised of hydro, geothermal, wind, biomass and solar. Coal remained the top power source with a share of 10,417 MW.
