Solutions

The Philippines needs an Energy Revolution—an innovative change in the way we use, produce, and distribute energy. Greenpeace is presenting the Philippine government with a concrete action plan to make that Energy Revolution possible. The Energy Revolution will provide the country with secure and affordable energy while maintaining the country’s economic development. It will steer the country away from the use of harmful, climate change-causing fossil fuels, and toward harnessing the country’s vast reserves of free, clean and safe renewable energy. The passage of the RE Law is the first important step.

The volatile costs of fossil fuels and the rampaging and worsening impacts of largely fossil fuel-propelled climate change warrant a serious strategic reconsideration of the energy pathway so far chosen by the country. Renewables, along with the smart use of energy, must be harnessed in a great scale in order to strengthen the country’s energy independence and to mitigate climate change impacts.

The report goes as far as to detail how, through the Energy Revolution, it will be possible for the country to generate as much as 70% of its electricity needs from renewable energy by 2050, with ‘new’ renewables, such as wind, biomass, geothermal and solar energy, contributing 58% of this capacity. However, the right decisions in energy infrastructure that will make all this possible need to happen now. To catalyze the Energy Revolution, the government must immediately phase out all subsidies for fossil fuel technologies and internalize their external costs; set out legally-binding targets for renewable energy and new laws to implement those targets; provide defined and stable returns for RE investors; and guarantee priority access to the grid for renewables.

Energy [R]evolution: A Sustainable Philippine Energy Outlook' may be downloaded here.