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Synergies for Development: A WWF forum on Climate Change and Renewable Energy WWF-Philippines, together with the klima Climate Change Center-Manila Observatory and GEF-UNDP-DOE’s “Philippines: Capacity Building to Remove Barriers to Renewable Energy Development” or CBRED Project, held a forum on climate change and renewable energy last 24 May 2006, 10:00 a.m. at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Makati City. Titled “Climate Change and Renewable Energy: Synergies for Development,” the forum brought together legislators from the House of Representatives, experts from the Department of Energy, the academe, the business sector, and representatives from the financial institutions and the donor community. Among the topics discussed were climate change and its current and future impacts on the Philippines, how renewable energy can play an important role in preventing dangerous climate change and help the country achieve energy independence and how the passage of the Renewable Energy (RE) Bill will help achieve this. The RE Bill, if passed into law, will accelerate the development of the country’s vast reserves of renewable energy – such as geothermal, hydro, wind, solar, and biomass – by providing, among others, attractive fiscal incentives to encourage clean energy projects in the country. The bill also seeks to open access to the energy grid for all renewable energy sources, give priority dispatch for wind power and other intermittent generators, and requires power generators/distributors to have a fixed percentage of power coming from renewable sources through the Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS). Climate change is a scientific reality, and it is already upon us. The Third Assessment Report (TAR) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts the global average of surface temperature to rise by 1.4 to 5.8 °C by 2100, greater than what has been experienced over the last 10,000 years. A predicted global average sea level rise of 9 to 88 centimeters by the year 2100 will submerge entire islands and coastal communities and could damage infrastructure, displace populations and increase ground water salinity. Global warming has been attributed by the IPCC to the steadily increasing concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere resulting in an enhanced greenhouse effect. By far the worst offenders are outdated coal-fired power plants around the world, which are responsible for 37-percent of all CO2 emissions. And things are bound to get worse, particularly in the Asia Pacific region, where carbon dioxide emissions from the power industry are expected to rise by 85% in 2012. But the Philippines does not have to rely on fossil-based power plants since it has vast reserves of clean, renewable sources of energy. According to a study commissioned by WWF-Philippines with the University of the Philippines’ National Engineering Center, the Philippines has a potential installed capacity of 7, 400 megawatts from wind power; 2, 300 megawatts from hydro, 4,000 megawatts from geothermal; and about 250 megawatts from biomass sources. This climate change and renewable energy forum is part of WWF-Philippines’s active lobbying efforts in support of the RE Bill. As a highlight of the forum, the Positibong Alternatibo ang Renewable Energy or P.A.R.E ni Juan Campaign presented more than 170,000 signatures supporting the RE Bill in the form of a ballot box dubbed “Boto ng Bayan para sa RE Bill.” Participants of the forum were also encouraged to put in their votes in support of the RE Bill. The forum was also the venue for the launch of the Green-E Rating and Awards Program which is the “Oscar Awards” for RE projects, and the RE infomercials of the CBRED Project, a GEF-funded capacity-building project being implemented by UNDP and DOE. |
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