THE Department of Energy (DOE) assured it would scale up deployment of renewables in the country, but did not commit to phase out coal power projects in the country.
During the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, DOE Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi said the Philippines will support the following declarations:
To rapidly scale up deployment of clean power generation and energy efficiency measures in our economies and to support other countries to do the same, recognizing the leadership shown by countries making ambitious commitments, including through the Energy Transition Council.
To rapidly scale up technologies and policies in this decade.
To strengthen our domestic and international efforts to provide a robust framework of financial, technical and social support to affected workers.
The DOE didn’t commit to phase out coal power by 2030 for major economies and 2040 for the rest of the world and to end all investment in new coal power generation domestically and internationally.
DOE officials said the Philippine delegation only endorsed clauses one and partially two and four of the Statement because other declarations do not align with the county’s Philippine Energy Plan.
In its updated Energy Plan 2020-2040, the DOE seeks to make renewable energy account for 35 percent of the Philippine energy mix by 2030 and 50 percent by 2040.
“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 Philippines, Cusi stressed, is not a major emitter of greenhouse gases but bears the worsening impacts of climate change. “Likewise, we wish to emphasize that energy security is foremost because our energy transition comes as a means to improve the lives of our people and our country’s economic development,” said the energy chief.
DOE Undersecretary Felix William B. Fuentebella said during the Group of 77 meeting and China meeting that there is a need to fast-track the mobilization of funds for climate change engagements to achieve the desired results.
“We stated that every dollar or every peso spent should be quantified, as well as its impact towards our common goal and reported to the people of the receiving country and the people of the participating country for full transparency,” Fuentebella said.
The Philippine delegation to COP26 noted that although Western economies failed to meet their financing pledge to climate-vulnerable countries, the Philippines moved with urgency in implementing climate mitigation and adaptation initiatives.
The Climate Investment Funds (CIF) announced that the Philippines, India and Indonesia will join South Africa as the first recipients of a multibillion-dollar pilot program aimed at accelerating their transition from coal power to clean energy.
Signatories of the COP26 agreement agreed to phase out coal-fueled power generation in the 2030s for richer countries and the 2040s for poorer nations.
The Philippines declared last year a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants. Since then, Cusi said, “nothing has changed,” clarifying that the country’s commitment to support the global effort to transition gradually from coal to clean power remains a priority.
Meanwhile, Greenpeace Philippines Campaigner Khevin Yu denounced “in the strongest possible terms the Philippine government’s shameless climate hypocrisy and its lack of political will to end coal use and chart a decisive path away from dependence on fossil fuels.”
“The DOE’s delusions that it can have its cake and eat it too—transition away from coal power and shift to RE (renewable energy), 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. Worse, the move reeks of efforts to protect the interest of coal and fossil fuel companies at the expense of the welfare of Filipino communities. We believe Cusi’s non-commitment isn’t fooling anybody. Instead, he’s exposed how the DOE is seemingly the biggest barrier toward a genuine just energy transition,” Yu said.
He added that the agency should ramp up its commitment to phase out coal by revising the Philippine Energy Plan. It should increase the country’s RE target to 50 percent by 2030, halt all plans for fossil gas and improve grid development for utility-scale solar and wind to massively scale up RE deployment.
Meanwhile, the Center for Energy, Ecology and Development (CEED) said the government’s commitments are just “empty gesture.”
“This reluctance in the energy transition comes as no surprise. It was seen just a few days ahead the climate conference and on the first anniversary of a coal moratorium put in place by the DOE, when several frontline coal-affected communities and climate and environmental justice advocates demanded that the DOE shelve remaining coal projects once and for all. They were met with silence,” the CEED said.