GUIMARAS BANS COAL, ‘DIRTY ENERGY’ SOURCES

GUIMARAS Gov. Samuel T. Gumarin said the island-province is “off limits” to coal and other dirty sources of energy as he vowed to make the province the renewable-energy capital of the Western Visayas region.

Backed by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan and other local officials in the province, Gumarin made the policy pronouncement in front of various stakeholders at the barangay hall grounds of Suclaran, San Lorenzo town in Guimaras.

The declaration made Guimaras the first coal-free province in the Western Visayas region.

“We want to show the world that we don’t need dirty energy to power development.  The people of Guimaras have embraced renewables over dirty, polluting energy.  We want to show that a sustainable-development path, powered by renewable energy, is not only possible, but more viable. And we hope that our humble example will resonate to other provinces and to the world,” Gumarin said.

The San Lorenzo wind farm, the first ever in the Visayas, has been operational since 2014.

There are plans to expand the province’s renewable-energy production capacity with additional 40 megawatts in Barangay Sebaste in the town of Sibunag.

The power generated from the wind farm is directed to the grid and shared with member-consumers across Luzon and the Visayas through the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market.

With the 40-megawatt expansion, the operators of the wind farms are expected to be able to also cover the energy demands of its neighboring province, Iloilo.

Guimaras has had a long history of resistance to fossil fuels.

In 2006 it experienced a devastating oil spill after M/T Solar 1, operated by Petron Corp. and Sunshine Maritime Development Corp., sank off the waters of Panay Gulf. In 2010 Guimaras took a strong position against a coal-fired power plant being proposed at that time in Barangay Ingore, Iloilo City, which would have had very adverse effects on the health and economy of the people in Guimaras, especially their world-famous mango industry.

Since then, Guimaras has transformed itself into a community that has embraced wind power as their energy of choice.

In a statement supporting the policy, Mayor Nimfa G. Gajo of San Lorenzo said:  “Our people here in San Lorenzo know the benefits of harnessing the blessings of nature to power our development. Here, we have no coal, thus the absence of all the ills and harms dirty energy brings with it. Today is a victory for our people and our municipality and, I believe, for the whole of Guimaras.”

The Rainbow Warrior, as part of its Climate Justice Ship Tour in the Philippines, went to Guimaras to highlight the power of people to rise up against the devastating impacts of climate change, according to Greenpeace Southeast Asia Philippines.

During the event, Greenpeace Southeast Asia Executive Director Naderev Saño and Climate Reality Project Philippines Country Manager Rodne Galicha presented the provincial government and the municipal government of San Lorenzo a wood plaque in recognition of their effort to go for renewable energy.

In an interview with the BusinessMirror, Saño and Galicha lauded the local officials of the province for declaring the province “off limits” to coal and other dirty sources of energy.

They said other provinces should also consider going green and turn their backs on coal and other dirty sources of energy.

Saño said renewable energy, like those generated by the wind and the sun, are now cheaper than coal and will continue to challenge coal fired-power plants.

“The issue now is no longer about the cost because solar and wind are now cheaper than coal.  We have the technology, we have investors willing to invest in the Philippines and we have local government units, such as Guimaras, willing to say no to coal and other dirty-energy sources,” he said.

In his message, he called on other stakeholders to stand up for Mother Nature “because we need to be able to hand down a healthy and sustainable planet for our future generations.”

He said local governments like Guimaras are standing up to break free from fossil fuels.

“Our vision is the same as the vision of the province of Guimaras. Renewable energy is powering this part of the world, and Guimaras is leading the way. It makes us proud to be Filipinos. This is the kind of leadership the world needs right now,” he said.

Galicha said there is no more reason the government should not say no to coal, saying the right policies are already in place, as well as affordable technology the country can avail itself of.

“It is up to the government to embrace renewable energy and turn its back on coal,” Galicha said.

Greenpeace Southeast Asia-Philippines said the Rainbow Warrior’s stop in Guimaras gives focus to the initiatives of communities in their resistance against coal and rising up to the renewable-energy challenge that should encourage other communities and local government units to do the same.

Galicha said solutions to the climate crisis are already available.  He said provinces, cities and municipalities—and even small communities – are already speaking up and sending a strong message that renewable energy is the right way toward genuine development that is sustainable and they are committed to a 100-percent coal-free living.

“This is adherence to sustainable development goals [SDGs] the Paris Agreement, and beyond, for a safe future and healthy planet,” Galicha said.

“The commitment to go coal-free means the whole of Guimaras is pursuing a sustainable development path and is a clear manifestation of communities themselves taking the lead toward reclaiming their rights to a healthy environment and stable climate,” said Khevin Yu, Climate and Energy Campaigner of Greenpeace Southeast Asia-Philippines.

With the abundance of renewable-energy sources in the Philippines, such as wind and solar, coupled with the decreasing prices of renewable-energy technology, Greenpeace and other civil-society organizations are calling for a halt on new coal and urging the rest of the country to follow the example of Guimaras.

“[Having] additional coal plants means we will have a bigger problem in limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. We need to stop coal locally, and this is what Guimaras is doing now,” Yu added.

As the province welcomed the Rainbow Warrior, the ship’s crew and their captain, Hettie Geenen, expressed their appreciation of, and support for, the staunch determination of the people of Guimaras to stand up to the big fossil-fuel industry.

“We are now seeing very clearly that those who are least responsible for climate change are bearing the brunt of its impacts. But our visit here to the Philippines has shown us that even a resilient people will not take this sitting down. By the very act of being coal-free, Guimaras sets itself as a national and global leader in ending the age of coal and embracing the benefits of renewables,” Captain Geenen said.

The Rainbow Warrior’s tour in the Philippines, dubbed as “Balangaw: The Climate Justice Ship Tour”, is part of its five-month “Climate Change and People Power” tour of Southeast Asia. The Philippine leg started from February 14 to 18 in Manila, followed by a protest action at the Shell Batangas refinery on February 21. From Guimaras, the ship will sail to Tacloban in Eastern Visayas, arriving on February 28 and staying until March 4, before it sails on to Indonesia.

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Reference:

Mayuga, J. L. (February 25, 2018).  Business Mirror. 

COAL TO TOP 55% OF PH POWER MIX BY 2027 COAL TO TOP 55% OF PH POWER MIX BY 2027

Despite its higher excise tax under the new tax reform law, as well as initiatives to promote the use of renewable energy (RE), coal will dominate the Philippines’ energy mix in the next 10 years, a BMI Research study found.

“[T]he share of coal [is]actually increasing over our 10-year forecast period—from just under 50 percent in 2017 to over 55 percent by 2027,” Fitch-owned BMI said.

The gradual commissioning of coal plants in the pipeline would boost this increase, it added.

BMI noted some efforts to diversify the country’s power mix toward cleaner fuels, like natural gas and RE, as part of its commitment to cut 70 percent of its carbon emissions by 2030 under the United Nations Paris Agreement that took effect in November 2016.

“[H]owever, the country has released few details on how they intend to reach its target, particularly given the dominance of coal in the project pipeline,” the company said.

Citing its Key Projects Database, BMI said “54 percent of all the power projects under development are coal projects.”

Latest Department of Energy (DoE) data show it only endorsed Orion Pacific Prime Energy Inc.’s 1,000-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in Barangay Awasan, Tagkawayan town, Quezon province.

The study came more than a month after President Rodrigo Duterte signed Republic Act 10963, or the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law (Train) Act. It took effect New Year’s Day.

Under the new law, the coal excise tax was raised from P10 per metric ton (MT) to P50 this year, P100 in 2019, and P150 in 2020.

The new tax aims to reduce the country’s dependence on fossil fuels and slash power rates by removing price volatility from importing coal and leveling the playing field from generating costs across all sources.

The Philippines imports about 75 percent of its coal supply from Indonesia and Australia, BMI said.

While the study questions the effectiveness of this move to lower electricity rates, it said it could help incentivize investment in the domestic energy sources, namely RE, over the longer run as it becomes more competitive against coal.

Meanwhile, RE is expected to contribute about 20 percent to the total power generation mix in 2020, decreasing to 16 percent in 2027.

Total non-hydro renewables capacity is projected to reach just under 5.4 gigawatts (GW) by 2020, about 50 percent higher than the 3.56 GW installed in 2016, mainly boosted by the wind and solar sectors.

Capacity additions post-2020, however, will be limited, and there is a noticeable absence of new projects, meaning RE’s share would dwindle as thermal sources expand.

Although BMI said the gas-fired project pipeline strengthened recently, its share is only 10 percent, and the use of gas will be capped by regulatory and infrastructural headwinds to liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects and competition from cheap coal.

The depletion of domestic gas supplies is a significant concern, as the Malampaya gas field off Palawan province will be nearly depleted by the end of the firm’s 10-year forecast period.

“This, combined with the lack of any significant new upstream gas projects in the pipeline, has led the Philippines to seek LNG imports for the first time,” BMI said.

Reference:

Lagareon, J. S. (February 1, 2018). Coal to top 55% of PH power mix by 2027. The Manila Times.

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