Philippines should take lead in clean energy
- Energy, Environment, Going Green -
By Dennis Posadas
Contributor
IT looks like the previous prediction by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on sea level rise back in 2007 is actually an underestimate, according to scientists who presented their findings at the Copenhagen Climate Conference this week. This means that 600 million Asians living in low-lying coastal areas, including us Filipinos, will experience increased occurrences of flooding inland. Already, stronger storms and seawater creep into previously arable areas are some of the early signs of what to expect.
Now we have a new Renewable Energy (RE) Act patterned after those in Europe and the U.S. which is actually key to our climate change efforts. Aside from incentives to renewable energy companies and investors, this RE Act actually requires the power utilities like Meralco to purchase a certain percentage of their power from renewable/clean energy sources. It also features incentives to spur the development of a local clean energy sector.
But it does not stop there. Even with this RE Act, a lack of societal commitment by Filipinos to clean energy may undermine the success of this law. After being a top priority at $140/barrel, clean energy is again quickly becoming an afterthought. During my time as an electrical engineering student at UP Diliman, the evidence of renewable energy research was all around us in our laboratory. But now, very few engineering students are doing power and energy research. After all, for a time, crude was flowing cheaply from the Middle East until last year. Unfortunately, a clean energy commitment that ebbs and flows will not encourage its development, and will not encourage large scale innovation in this arena.
