PH plans energy infrastructure mainstreaming

The government wants to mainstream energy infrastructure planning in local development activities nationwide.

The move aims to help the Philippines better address climate change and achieve energy resiliency which the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) envisions for the country and other nations in the region.

“Energy infrastructure planning will be integrated in local development nationwide,” said Climate Change Commission (CCC) Asst. Sec. Joyceline Goco.

She said it is among the activities under the 2015-2019 ‘Support to the Philippines in Shaping and Implementing the International Climate Regime (SupportCCC II) project of the Philippine and German governments.

Among SupportCCC II’s components include renewable energy (RE) and energy planning.

Germany’s Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety will provide nearly 5 million for the project which will build on the previous German-funded “Support to CCC in implementing the National Climate Change Action Plan” project.

Launched in Metro Manila last week, SupportCCC II targets strengthening key Philippine actors’ capability in carrying out and coordinating the country’s national climate change regime.

“We don’t want to be forever the face of climate vulnerability,” said CCC Commissioner Emmanuel de Guzman.

The project also enables the Philippines to help shape the international climate regime by sharing local experiences and best practices in adaptation and mitigation.

“The project is going beyond the national to the international level,” said Goco.

Senate climate change committee chairperson Loren Legarda sees urgency in building energy resilience, noting earthquakes and other natural hazards threaten energy infrastructure which is key to further boosting AsiaPacific’s development.

Protecting such infrastructure is essential particularly as Asian Development Bank projections show energy demand in Asia and the Pacific will almost double by 2030, she noted.

The region is projected to register a 3.2 percent growth both in 2015 and 2016, she also said.

“With development comes greater demand for energy,” she further said last month at the APEC energy ministers’ meeting in Cebu province.

Aside from being home to some 2.8 billion people, Legarda said Asia and the Pacific account for some 57 percent of global GDP and 50 percent of world trade.

“Clearly, the sustainable development-energy nexus requires an urgent examination of how the region can tap on the power of innovation and new technologies to provide for the energy it needs in a sustainable and socially inclusive manner,” she noted.

Legarda cited need for carrying out vulnerability assessments and emergency response planning to identify major energy networks facing dangers from natural hazards.

“The energy infrastructure system receives the brunt of disaster impacts, resulting in disruptions to business and delivery of basic services,” she said.

Climate change elevated the need for protecting energy infrastructure, Legarda continued.

“Energy security and climate security are two stories under the same plot,” she noted.

Under SupportCCC II’s energy component, the government will promote the use of RE nationwide.

Government will also align the country’s national energy planning towards a coherent and climate-friendly power sector.

“We hope that through collective efforts of parties involved in the project, there can be integrated energy planning,” said Mario Marasigan, chief of the Energy department’s Renewable Energy Management Bureau.

CCC, the Energy department, other actors at the national and local levels as well as German aid agency Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit are partners in SupportCCC II.

In Cebu last month, APEC’s energy ministers adopted the Cebu Declaration which promotes energy resilience in Asia and the Pacific.

“The ministers agreed climateproofing energy infrastructure is a significant endeavor towards energy resiliency,” Department of Energy Sec. Zenaida Monsada said at the meeting’s press conference.

They also affirmed energy resiliency’s importance in promoting energy security and sustainable development in Asia and the Pacific.

“We recognize that the APEC region has become the lynchpin of world economic progress,” the miisters said in the declaration.

“Our combined growth rate is estimated at four percent annually over the past 10 years - one of the more dynamic economic regions in the world. this growth has translated into an annual increase of about three percent in energy consumption. We reaffirm that energy remains a critical input for intensifying and sustaining productivity improvements across all sectors in the economy which supports APEC’s economic development.”(PNA)