Energy Development Corp., the country’s largest geothermal company, said Monday it launched a multi-sectoral movement toward attaining net zero carbon emissions among businesses in the Philippines.
Dubbed the Net Zero Carbon Alliance, EDC controlled by First Gen Corp. is spearheading the movement for the country to become carbon neutral, in line with the Department of Energy’s goal to reduce emissions by as much as 75 percent as part of the government’s contributions to the landmark global Conference of the Parties 21 Paris Climate Change Agreement.
“We are putting into action our revitalized mission in the Lopez Group to ‘forge collaborative pathways for a decarbonized and regenerative future’ by seeking partnerships and synergies with fellow enterprises in the country,” said EDC president and chief operating officer Richard Tantoco.
The Net Zero Carbon program is strategically developed to provide partners with a roadmap to attain carbon neutrality through the sharing of best practices and scaling up of carbon emission offsetting and tracking, as well as assistance in obtaining third-party certification of carbon emissions and offsets, and even access to “green” financing.
EDC’s guidance will be based on its experience as a carbon negative company through its 100-percent RE operations and protection and restoration of the forests within its geothermal project sites.
With EDC’s established decarbonization mechanisms, partners can adopt these practices and leverage them toward carbon offsetting and sequestration.
Tantoco said there are three major strategies that companies can implement to be a part of the solution and at the same time, to future proof their businesses. These include stopping support to coal, the single largest source of global warming, becoming an enabler of decarbonization and making business carbon neutral.
“The World Resources Institute recommends countries to phase out coal in electricity generation five times faster. To do this, institutions and businesses need to put their foot down and say no to coal,” he said.
The pioneering members of the Net Zero Carbon Alliance include property developer ArthaLand, Lopez Group construction affiliate First Balfour, sustainability communications agency Drink, Silliman University in Dumaguete, Negros Oriental, multinational firms Analog Devices, Coca-Cola, Knowles Electronics and Unilever.
“We are extremely excited with the enthusiastic participation of our partners and we are looking forward to working with more and more enterprises in the local business sector as we move toward our common goal of mitigating the global challenge of climate change,” said Tantoco.
EDC said it is every company’s duty to curb its carbon footprint to have a livable planet for generations to come.
EDC is the country’s biggest 100-percent RE company that accounts for over 40 percent of the Philippines’ RE output and serves about 10 percent of the country’s overall electricity demand with its installed capacity of almost 1,500 megawatts.
Its 1,181MW geothermal portfolio accounts for 62 percent of the country’s total installed geothermal capacity, putting the Philippines on the map as the world’s third largest geothermal power producer.