Prioritize renewable energy dev’t
Senator Loren Legarda renewed her call
for more investments in renewable energy as part of a long-term solution to the
growing power needs of the country and to mitigate the effects of environmental
degradation and climate change.
Legarda, the United Nations Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction
and Climate Change Adaptation for Asia-Pacific, made the call at the Clean
Technology Congress 2014 organized by ThomasLloyd in Frankfurt am Main,
Germany.
“The aftermath of Haiyan
was an eye-opener for us Filipinos. The devastation it caused made us realize
that we need to climate- and disaster-proof our energy sector,” Legarda said.
Typhoon Haiyan left more than 6,000 dead and nearly 2,000
missing. Damages and losses are estimated at P571.1 billion (equivalent to USD
12.9 billion).
Legarda, co-author and co-sponsor of the Philippine Renewable
Energy Law, noted that the Philippines has already established a legal
framework that provides for necessary policy mechanisms for the development of
the country’s renewable energy resources.
“We have the laws in place, namely, the Philippine Biofuels Act
and the Renewable Energy Act. These laws are there and it is only a matter of
operationalizing and implementing them,” she said.
The Biofuels Act mandates the blending of biodiesel and ethanol
in locally-distributed diesel and gasoline, while the Renewable Energy Law
institutionalizes the use and development of renewable energy.
“We should take advantage of the current increased interest in
renewable energy. We must encourage more investments on RE because the
Philippines is abundant in such. It is second in geothermal energy use and
studies show that we have more than 200,000 potential renewable energy
resources that remain untapped,” Legarda noted.
“Even the Asian Development Bank acknowledges that there is an
increase in clean energy investment in the Asia-Pacific region, attracting USD
101 billion of investments in clean energy for the year 2012 alone,” she added.
“It is about time that we take a consistent and deliberate
effort to develop our own energy resources in ways that we can guarantee the
future generations of Filipinos a legacy of clean, reliable and affordable
energy,” Legarda added.
Aside from Legarda, the event brought together world-renowned
speakers Dr. Justin Yifu Lin, former Chief Economist and Vice President of the
World Bank; Professor Peter Guthrie, Professor of Engineering for Sustainable
Development at the University of Cambridge; and former US President Bill
Clinton.
Dr. Lin discussed about the “golden age of Asia” and its growth
potential, while Professor Guthrie touched on the need to re-evaluate the
concept of the “grid-based” energy model, encouraging the use of renewable
energy in off-grid areas.
President Clinton, on the other hand, stressed the need to
enhance one’s “relationship with the planet” by means of reducing emissions and
promoting investments in the development of renewable energy sources, most
especially in solar energy and biomass.
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