By Dennis Posadas

THE Philippines may be one of the world’s top supporters of Earth Hour and Earth Day. We may have a new Renewable Energy Act. But if all this does not translate into greenhouse gas emission reduction, then all that is for naught. After all, don’t you think it is time to move beyond token political statements on clean energy, and actually implement these clean energy projects?

In order for GHG reduction to take effect, the Philippines to seriously take advantage of the new Renewable Energy Act, by having a companion ecosystem for innovation, financing, and deployment of renewable energy projects.

That is why I am so pleased to find out that opportunities to finance clean energy projects were showcased in the Philippines Clean Energy Investor Forum last June 15 at the Edsa Shangri-La hotel. The forum showcased projects that evolved from a competition, sponsored by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Private Finance Advisory Network (PFAN).

PFAN is a multi-lateral public-private partnership which is managed in Asia by USAID’s ECO-ASIA Clean Development and Climate program and initiated by the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Climate Technology Initiative.

The PFAN Philippines Clean Energy Investor Forum served as a platform for Philippine energy entrepreneurs to showcase their ideas to investors.

Six finalists were chosen by PFAN for the Philippines Business Plan competition. Each of the companies received mentoring and one-on-one coaching before they formally made their investment pitches in the forum. The event was basically a dog and pony show of those seeking investments, before a group of investors who also want to invest in renewable/clean energy.

The total value of investments of those who made it to the finals was potentially more than $500 million, comprising both debt and equity finance.

In addition to offering promising investments, these projects have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 1.5 million metric tons of CO2 per year, according to USAID.

During the June 15 presentations, the panel of judges selected two Clean Energy Financing Award winners for the Philippines. The winner, Asea One, is proposing to setup 16 clean energy powerplants in Negros Oriental and the Western Visayas, while the other finalist, SURE is proposing to build, own and operate clean energy plants that run on feedstocks like rice husks and wood chips.

“By bringing together clean energy entrepreneurs and investors, the PFAN Philippines Clean Energy Investor Forum is addressing the barriers that clean energy businesses face in seeking financing,” said Jon Lindborg, Mission Director for USAID Philippines.

“These barriers make it difficult for investors to identify and screen viable clean energy projects.” USAID believes that by identifying and nurturing the best ideas, they can help facilitate financing for the projects.

The Agency is also working to expand regional clean energy finance initiatives on a regional basis by developing a network of businesses and investors interested in promoting sustainable clean energy technologies and businesses.

The next stop of the PFAN Investor Forum is Indonesia on June 25, and then Hong Kong, where the PFAN China Investor Forum will be held 27-28 September.

It is great that we have the Renewable Energy Act in place, a product of all the years that groups like Greenpeace and WWF lobbied our Congress to implement.

We can send all the representatives that we want to send to Copenhagen this year and have all the laws and policies in place, but if back home we do not build the ecosystem that will encourage actual clean energy entrepreneurs and ventures, we will simply be talking about greenhouse gas emission reduction, and not really doing anything about it.

Dennis Posadas is the author of Jump Start: A Technopreneurship Fable (Singapore: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009)

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By Dennis Posadas

This week let us discuss the basics of funding for technology startups.

The first thing one has to realize is that unlike a lot of businesses that have physical collateral (e.g. a building, manufacturing equipment, etc.), technology based businesses often have an additional type of collateral–namely intellectual property.

Now the problem oftentimes is that bankers in most parts of the world, including the Philippines, do not know how to value intellectual property. You can’t blame them; specialized consulting firms have sprouted up that can do these valuations, unfortunately not many of them are based in the country.

In addition, there is also the matter of how much sophistication there is in the product. If at first glance, the observer can figure out how the product or service works, then there isn’t too much of an intellectual barrier to start with.

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BY now, you’ve probably read a lot of news about the swine flu spreading around the world at an alarming rate. At this point, it is best to know what it is to help us prepare. We’ve collated some news and information we think would be useful

Information culled by Reuters:

Q&A: How serious is swine flu?

Excerpt:

WHAT KIND OF FLU IS IT AND HOW IS IT SPREADING?

The virus is influenza A virus, carrying the designation H1N1, but it contains DNA from avian, swine and human H1N1 viruses. It appears to have evolved the ability to pass easily from one person to another, unlike most swine H1N1 viruses which only very occasionally infect people and usually only infect one person and then stop there.

Flu viruses are all passed on by sneezing, coughing or when people pick up the virus on their hands. This one likely originated in pigs, but the Mexican government and the World Health Organization have ruled out any risk of infection from eating pork.

HOW SERIOUS IS IT?

The Geneva-based WHO has declared the flu a “public health emergency of international concern” and raised the threat level for a pandemic, a global epidemic of new disease. H1N1 swine flu poses the biggest risk of a large-scale pandemic since avian flu re-emerged in 2003, killing 257 out of 421 infected in 15 countries.

It is not clear yet whether this virus could actually become a pandemic.

Poynter Institute has also tracked a growing pool of information from the Internet. In fact, the Internet is now abuzz with swine flu talk in Twitter and blogs.

Here’s another interesting step-by-step way to track news and information about the Swine Flu on the Internet from Mashable.

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The Department of Science and Technology-Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI) is planning to hold an annual robotics competition among the country’s science high schools.

The competition would allow science high school students to show their prowess in creating a robot, in the same manner as “Larry Labuyo,” the robot created by a group of students from the Philippine Science High School in Quezon City, which joined the prestigious FIRST Robotics competition in Hawaii and Atlanta, Georgia in the US.

The competition is set to be officially announced sometime in June or July, in time for the upcoming National Science and Technology Week (NSTW).

SEI Director Ester Ogena said the robotics competition is aimed at encouraging young science high school students to pursue technical courses related to the creation of robotics, particularly in the areas of software programming, mechanical engineering and electrical engineering.

Ogena said the Philppine robotics team recently sent abroad with “Larry Labuyo” are examples of young people working together to build a complex machine. “Obviously, our intention is to develop communities among our students.”

Ogena said the SEI is stil finalizing the guidelines for the competition. She said that the development kit for each school participating in the competition would have to be composed of parts mostly purchasable from local shops.

“We’re still working on what the development kit would have. They won’t have to be expensive but they have to be workable,” Ogena said.

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MANILA, Philippines—A non-government organization (NGO) is calling on government to recognize the “real and present danger” posed by climate change to coastal communities on Earth Day which is being celebrated today.

The Tambuyog Development Center, an NGO that assists coastal municipalities in drafting local Fisheries Code and Coastal Resource Management Plans, is calling the attention of various government agencies to fast track responses to climate change challenges.

Tambuyog specified the assistance of the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Department of Interior and Local Government.

During its Earth Day event, Dinna Umengan, lead campaigner of the group, said Tambuyog was primarily concerned with the impact of climate change on coastal and marine natural resources that have a direct bearing on the food security and livelihood of millions of people in coastal communities.

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