A new report highlighted the urgency for further reducing carbon emissions nationwide, warning failure to act on these climate change-driving discharges will spell more problems for the country.
Launched in Metro Manila this week, Greenpeace Southeast Asia’s report ‘The True Cost of Coal Vol. 2’ focuses on the coal-climate change link and emphasizes need for increasingly replacing carbon-emitting coal-based power production with renewable energy (RE) to help mitigate such discharges.
“Compared to other sources, coal emits more carbon per unit of energy,” said Greenpeace Philippines climate and energy campaigner Reuben Muni.
He said RE sources like the sun, wind and water abound nationwide, making it possible for the country to increasingly tap these.
“We must go green and fast-track RE development in the country,” he said.
Such bid is in line with RA 9513 (Renewable Energy Act of 2008) which promotes development, utilization and commercialization of RE sources in the country.
Experts already said greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions like those from carbon dioxide (CO2) trap heat in the atmosphere, raising global temperature that results in climate change.
Muni said GHG emission reduction is essential particularly as the Philippines is among countries most vulnerable to impacts of the changing climate.
Such impacts are onslaught of extreme weather events as well as sea level and temperature rise, he noted.
Climate expert Lourdes Tibig is supporting calls for GHG emission reduction, saying studies already point to a possible 5°C temperature rise in the future if it’s business as usual with no increased efforts for mitigating the discharges.
“The repercussions will be catastrophic,” she said.
She noted temperature change at present is still below the destructive 2°C threshold experts earlier set but the country is already increasingly experiencing extreme weather events.
Among such events is Typhoon ‘Yolanda’ (international name ‘Haiyan’) which left over 6,000 people dead and caused damages surpassing PHP39 billion, said Greenpeace, citing a January 2014 report by National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
“Already in December 2013, National Economic and Development Authority said ‘Yolanda’ recovery and reconstruction will require a total of PHP361 billion in investments.”
Greenpeace describes ‘Yolanda’ as “unprecedented but not unusual” as the group said studies show frequency of extreme weather events in the country may increase.
“Climate change is loading the dice for extreme weather events like such typhoon,” said Muni.
Tibig also said available data already show statisticallysignificant increase in the number of hot days and decrease in number of cold nights.
Such change has negative impacts on crops’ productivity and therefore poses a threat to food security, she said.
Sea level rise from the changing climate is threateningarchipelagic Philippines’ coastal communities as well, Tibigcontinued.
Those communities face inundation, she noted.
Muni further said studies indicate incidence of malaria, dengue, diarrhea and cholera show a 10 percent to 58 percent association between health and climate variables.
Onslaught of the drought-driving El Nino in 1998 already provided a glimpse of health repercussions that can arise from warming-induced climate change, he noted.
“The El Nino episode then triggered outbreaks of cholera, dengue and malaria,” he said.
Without expanded measures to address climate change, Muni likewise said impact on the economy can be as high as 6.7 percent of GDP if damages are considered along with market and non-market repercussions.
“Climate change poses huge economic costs for the Philippines,” he said.
Greenpeace noted that at present, the country has 13 operational coal-fired power plants with a total installed capacity of 3,799.10 MW.
In the pipeline for construction nationwide are 45 additional coal-fired power plants with a total capacity of over 10,300 MW, Greenpeace said.
The country must increasingly tap RE since studies show coal-fired power plants are pollution generators and comprise the world’s biggest source of man-made CO2 emissions, however, cautioned Greenpeace.
“Studies show coal is the main driver of climate change,” he said.
Greenpeace also reported that in 2011, coal was responsible for some 44 percent of global carbon emissions from fuel.
Such percentage is higher than that for oil (35 percent) and natural gas (20 percent), said Muni.
Latest available data demonstrate need for shifting to RE, Greenpeace continued.
Citing a study by German development arm Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, Greenpeace said such data show the Philippines is increasingly emitting CO2.
Greenpeace noted the study showed coal-based power generation in the Philippines produced some 81.15 million metric tonnes of carbon emissions in 2011 alone.
Such volume exceeded the 76 million metric tonnes of CO2 which the country emitted in 1998, Greenpeace said.
The country’s 1998 CO2 emission volume was even 72 percent more than what this was in 1990, noted Greenpeace.
Constructing and operating the country’s target additional coal-fired power plants will further raise Philippine CO2 emissions by over 64.4 million metric tonnes annually, Muni said.
Greenpeace continues promoting clean energy by advocating increased implementation of RE projects nationwide in line with RA 9513.
“Coal-fired power plants spew out millions of tons of pollution every year, contributing to climate change aside from filling neighboring air with toxic substances like mercury, lead, arsenic, cadmium and tiny sulfate and nitrate particles that wind up deep in people’s lungs, operating as silent killers,” Greenpeace said.
Muni also said the country’s existing operational coal-fired power plants can be gradually phased out with the oldest ones as priorities for shutting down as technologies show these use aren’t efficient in terms of producing electricity.
“Those operational plants can’t be phased out simultaneously since that’ll be difficult to do but must be retired little by little,” he said.
To better promote RE development nationwide, Greenpeace earlier said roadblocks to achieving this must be addressed.
Muni cited availability of funding as among roadblocks to RE development in the country.
“Available data show coal’s role in the Philippines is growing while share of renewables is declining,” he also said.
Greenpeace said Department of Energy data show that as of 2012, coal still dominated power generation nationwide at almost 39 percent that year from some eight percent only in 1991.
RE’s share of nationwide power production dipped to nearly 29 percent in 2011 only from almost 34 percent in 2008, however, Greenpeace continued.
The Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations have “massive” RE potential but over 160 million people in this region still live in energy poverty, said Greenpeace campaigner Amalie Obusan.
She noted continuing push for coal-fired power plants is a major obstacle to uptake of renewables in the region.
“We remain to be highly dependent on coal,” she said.
Abundance of RE sources nationwide provides the opportunity to build more stand-alone distribution systems for green electricity particularly in remote areas, however, noted Obusan.
Proliferation of such systems will help lessen dependence on power from the national grid, she said.
She also cited lesser losses since the stand-alone systems can be built near RE sources.(PNA)
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