The Federation of Philippine Industries has urged Congress to craft a measure that will mitigate the effects of climate change, vowing to help lawmakers to continuously advocate for rationale government policy and industry action on the issue.
In a letter to the House committee on energy, chaired by Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, FPI called on the alignment of climate change options to national priorities, circumstances and capabilities being a signatory to the 2015 Manila Declaration on Climate Change.
Dr. Jesus Lim Arranza, FPI chairman, lamented the recent call of Former USA Vice President Al Gore during his visit to the Philippines for “people power” action versus Philippine coal power plant projects. FPI is composed of 34 industry associations and 120 manufacturer- members.
“This is not only misplaced but reflects a complete lack of understanding of local conditions,” Arranza said, adding that “the country’s response to Greenhouse Gas reductions should rationally be based on co-benefit measures such as forestation.”
“On the other hand more developed countries such as the United States have capabilities for reductions in coal power plant capacities which the Philippines does not have in the foreseeable future,” Arranza said.
FPI has been urging climate change mitigation in the context of co-benefits such as robust reforestation, traffic decongestion noting that vehicles snarled in traffic results in large Greenhouse Gas (GHG) (carbon dioxide) emissions, and a rationale evaluation of the Philippine policy on Renewable Energies, Arranza said.
FPI said the Philippines is already a minimal contributor to carbon emissions—both on a total and per capita basis—relative to the rest of the world accompanied with high penetration of renewable energy capacity.
Despite the fact that the Philippines accounts for 1.37 percent of the world’s population, it only contributes 0.24 percent of the global CO2 emissions and significantly lower than one percent of the other GHGs On a CO2 emissions per capita per annum basis, this translates to 0.9 metric tons CO2 per capita much lower relative to more developed countries such as the United States (17), Germany (8.9), China (6.7), and even neighboring Thailand (4.5).
Similarly, the Philippines experiences one of the highest electricity rates in the world which has been further exacerbated by the introduction of the Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) system to subsidize renewable energy generation.
“Specifically, we have the 9th highest all-in electricity rate in the world and second highest in Asia. Our country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita lags well behind globally at US$2,871 and is ranked 118th highest,” Arranza said.
In addition, the Philippines already has a high installed power generation capacity from renewable sources at 32 percent, driven primarily by geothermal and hydro resources, which is even higher than far more developed economies such as Germany (24 percent) and United States (12.2 percent), he said.
Moreover, the Philippines has only 23 coal-fired power plants, which incidentally are the backbone of the country’s generating sector as the aggregate power produced by these plants constitutes 35 percent of the country’s total power generated at about 6,000 MWs, Arranza stressed.
He emphasized that “coal power plants are base-load power plants that provide stable and dependable power that addresses the requirements of manufacturers and producers on a 24 x 7 basis.”