AMID the worsening impacts of climate change and the spiraling cost of oil, the urgent use of renewable energy is the way to go.

In its latest report, Greenpeace Southeast Asia outlined the benefits that renewable energy systems can offer as an alternative to the “business-as-usual” or fossil fuel-based approach currently maintained by the government and the rest of the world.

Windmills of Ilocos Norte (photo y Jaileen Jimeno)

Windmills of Ilocos Norte (photo by Jaileen Jimeno)

The environmentalist group held that an “energy revolution” — a change in the way of using, producing, and distributing energy — is necessary “to steer away from utilizing harmful, climate-change-causing fossil fuels, and to move toward harnessing the country’s vast reserves of free, clean, and safe renewable energy.”

Jointly developed with the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC), DLR (German Aerospace Center), and the University of the Philippines National Engineering Center (NEC), the report revealed that renewable energy can provide as much as 57 percent of the country’s energy needs by 2030 and about 70 percent by 2050.

Read more about Energy Revolution: A Sustainable Philippine Energy Outlook.

Greenpeace Southeast Asia executive director Von Hernandez pointed out that the Philippines has one of the highest renewable energy potential in the world. Unfortunately, this remains untapped, he said.

Wind energy, for example, has a potential of about 70,000 megawatts. This, Hernandez said, is enough to supply ten times the energy needs of the archipelago.

Solar energy also carries a huge potential because of the country’s tropical location.

Greenpeace said that developing and investing in “renewables” (wind, biomass, geothermal and solar) could help strengthen the country’s energy independence and mitigate the impacts of climate change.

Renewable energy systems, Hernandez added, could provide “a key to a real and long-term economic and environmental security.”

Mitigating climate change

The Philippines ranks among the most vulnerable places in the world in terms of climate change impacts. In fact, the 2008 Annual Climate Risk Index (CRI) of nongovernmental organization Germanwatch listed the Philippines as the country most affected by extreme weather events.

Jasper Inventor, Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner, explained that a “catastrophic climate change” might result if the business-as-usual scenario continues, when carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, based on 2003 levels, double by 2050. (see chart below)

But through the use of renewable energy, Inventor pointed out that CO2 emissions could be cut by half by 2050, thus avoiding the serious effects of climate change.

Savings on electricity costs

Aside from super typhoons, the rise in oil and commodity prices also contributes to the hardships presently faced by many Filipinos.

Greenpeace’s report indicated that through an energy revolution, as much as 40 percent or U.S.$9.6 billion in electricity cost could be saved by 2050.

Electricity costs under business-as-usual scenario, said Inventor, will reach up to U.S.$24 billion by 2050. But under the energy revolution scenario, electricity costs will be cheaper by 40 percent by 2050.

To catalyze this energy revolution, Greenpeace’s Hernandez pointed out that right decisions in energy infrastructure are needed.

The organization recommended the phase-out of all subsidies for fossil fuels, a stop to plans of constructing nuclear power plants, a moratorium on the construction of new coal-fired power plants, and abandonment of the myth of clean coal and nuclear power as solutions to climate change.

“It’s this fossilized thinking that still permeates in key agencies in government,” said Hernandez, referring to reports from the recent Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Ministers on Energy Meeting (AMEM) in Bangkok, Thailand that energy secretary Angelo Reyes is keen on fossil-fuel energy development.

“It boggles the mind that the people who are in a position to move us away from our dependence on fossil fuels remain fixated on deadly and costly fossil fuel-based energy approach,” Hernandez lamented.

For Inventor, the government’s plan to ban incandescent bulbs is a “good first step.” But, he added that more aggressive energy efficiency measures should also take place.

Greenpeace said that Congress, along with the Department of Energy (DOE), must implement strict energy efficiency efforts for all energy consuming sectors.

Need for legislation

Key to an energy revolution, Greenpeace said, is the passage of the Renewable Energy Bill.

Renewable energy, however, is presently up against a market that heavily favors the use of fossil fuels such as coal. In order for renewable energy technologies to gain foothold in the power sector, Greenpeace said a Renewable Energy Law must be adopted.

“We hope that the Renewable Energy Bill will create the right policy environment to encourage the development of the renewable energy systems in the country — to level the playing field, to give preferential economic treatment to providers and investors of renewable energy systems,” Hernandez said.

Senate President Manuel Villar has announced that the bill is one of the Upper House’s priority measures, but Greenpeace noted that it has yet to see real movement.

Hernandez added: “Even if President Arroyo or Secretary Reyes talk about climate change as a priority concern for the Philippines, all this is rhetoric, all this is lip service until we see real policy changes.”

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