Green energy advocates urge DOE to remove coal in energy mix amid calamities

Sustainable energy advocacy groups on Tuesday called on the Department of Energy (DOE) to once and for all remove the coal in the country’s energy mix, claiming that coal-fired plants contributed to the worsening natural calamities.

In a statement, People for Power Coalition (P4P) urged the DOE to use its declared coal moratorium to take out all coal-fired power plants in the Philippines “to avoid even worse catastrophes than what was experienced by the Philippines after a string of typhoons hit the country in the last five weeks.”

The group was referring to the Energy department’s recent order to impose a moratorium on endorsements of new coal-fired power plants as the country furthers its focus on the “entry of new, cleaner, and indigenous technological innovations.” 

“Coal fuels disasters. It’s plain and simple. So long as we burn coal, its greenhouse gas emissions will continue to heat the Earth and produce typhoons like Rolly and Ulysses, only much stronger and more frequently,” P4P convenor Gerry Arances said.

“It’s already too late to reverse the current trend of typhoons, but it’s not too late to stop the trend from becoming worse,” Arances said.

The group said coal remains as the Philippines’ biggest source of electricity due to the government’s “technologically neutral” stance.

The stance, however, the group claimed encouraged the construction of more coal power plants in the country, bucking a trend among advanced countries to stop further reliance on coal.

For his part, Philippine Movement for Climate Justice national coordinator Ian Rivera said the DOE’s coal moratorium signal that the government has finally realized the “waning financial viability of coal, the strong drive of renewables.”

“Dahil sa mga planta ng coal dito sa atin, nasira ang kalikasan na siyang nagbibigay ng hanap-buhay, nagkakasakit ang lahat dahil sa humihinang mga baga, at ngayon, nagdadala pa sila ng sakuna,” said Fr. Warren Puno, community advocate and director of the Ministry of Ecology in the Diocese of Lucena.

A capacity of 9.88 gigawatts of coal is currently installed in the country, a number that would see a 140% increase if all projects currently in the pipeline go online.

“No amount of economic growth can compensate for the damage that the climate emergency can bring. And what’s sad is that even if the promised economic growth happens, it does nothing to benefit the poor who are the ones who bear the brunt of the consequences of the economic and policy decisions of those who look only at numbers and graphs on paper, and not the flooded towns and destroyed lives in real life,” Arances said.

The P4P, along with other green energy advocates, said it is planning to hold another National Day of Action Against Coal (NDA) to demand that the DOE use the coal moratorium to permanently prohibit the issuance of any new Certificates of Endorsements for coal projects in the pipeline, eventually revoke existing ones, and begin the decommissioning process for operating plants.—LDF, GMA News