First Gen is ‘alpha company’...
advanced course of action and innovation in the sustainability realm because this is not just focusing on the initiative of their company and subsidiaries, but this also encourages collaboration between and among industry counterparts so the process of regeneration or transformation could be committedly broadened in the energy sector; as well as in other sectors of the economy and the various layers of society – and for these to flourish well into the future.
Lopez conveyed that “the recasted mission achieved so much traction internally and has become a beacon of sorts – reorienting our strategy and choice of capabilities and businesses as we move forward.”
Catalyst to shift in investment behaviors
To some energy companies in the Philippines, they still latch on to reason that the country has low carbon emissions level (of roughly 0.4%) compared to the more industrialized nations of the world (chiefly for big emitters like China and United States) – and they cling on to that logic to vouch that the Philippines still has leverage to take “gradual steps” on the shift to clean energy technologies.
But for the First Gen chief executive, he noted that given the state of the Philippines as one of the 10 most vulnerable countries to climate risks, “we should be among the most driven to amplify calls for commitments to a 1.5 degrees Celsius world,” – that is in reference to the targeted limit on global temperature rise to avoid frying the planet to extinction.
Lopez pins his hope that “while the signals are becoming clearer for everyone, in the coming years, we will see the Gen X’ers, Millennials and the Gen Z’s gaining more voice and power as consumers, employees and even employers.”
And while sustainability was practically a “drowned precept” in the corporate world a decade ago, Lopez is getting revved up on what he is seeing now as a much-improved movement in the sustainability domain of investments.
He stressed “companies and brands are reorienting around decarbonization goals. We’re witnessing similar shifts among financial institutions, investors, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, and large pension funds.”
In fact, Lopez shared that “many companies are beginning to place a shadow carbon price in their investment decisions,” while also qualifying that more and more countries as well as the world’s largest engineering firms are already voicing out plans that they will no longer build coalfired power facilities.