ALTHOUGH FOSSIL fuels are the single biggest source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, coal continues to be supported by both the government and businesses in the Philippines.
While it is the cheapest fuel option, coal is also the most polluting one. With cleaner alternatives such as hydropower, solar, and wind energy readily available and decreasing in price, coal is no longer the safe, long-term investment it once was.
But burdened by the high cost of electricity, regular power interruptions and an unreliable transmission system, coal remains a viable energy option for the Philippines – especially with the subsidies, financial incentives and other forms of support that the industry enjoys Coal is the country’s dominant energy source with a 52 percent share in gross power generation as of December 2018, followed by renewable energy sources (geothermal, hydro, solar, and wind) with 22 percent and natural gas at 21 percent.
Plans by the Department of Energy to ramp up coal production from 23 million metric tons (MMMT) from 2017-2018 to a staggering 282 MMMT from 2023-2040 as stated in its Coal Roadmap 2017-2040 flies in the face of the country’s ratification of the Paris Agreement, in which it committed to a 70 percent reduction in emissions by 2030.
While President Rodrigo Duterte used his State of the Nation Address in July to call for the fast-track of renewable energy development and a reduction in the dependence on traditional energy sources “such as coal”, he inaugurated a new coal-fired power plant last month – and there are plans for more such new developments.
