QUEZON CITY—The Department of Energy (DOE) on Tuesday declared a moratorium on endorsements for new coal power plants. Reacting on the development, Greenpeace Campaigner Khevin Yu said: 

“Greenpeace welcomes the Department of Energy’s recent declaration of a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants. However, this is only one small step. To ensure the country’s rapid transition to renewable energy, the DOE must take this further by enacting a permanent moratorium that includes not just coal but also gas projects in the pipeline, and jump-start a phase out plan for existing coal and other fossil fuel facilities.

“While we are holding Secretary Cusi to his commitment to promote RE, we also express our dismay on the decision to allow 100% foreign ownership of geothermal projects. Geothermal projects must be approached with extreme caution due to their impacts on communities and ecosystems. Data from a recent Greenpeace report shows that the Philippines can easily achieve 50% RE power generation by 2030 solely through solar and wind capacity [1]. To enable this to happen, the DOE must support their declaration with concrete policy measures such as removing financial incentives for coal and other fossil fuel power projects, imposing higher coal taxes to pressure energy companies to divest from existing and proposed coal projects, and removing nuclear projects from all energy plans.

“We believe the DOE’s announcement is also a strong signal to coal investors as well as financial institutions that fossil fuels are a losing proposition. Major players in both distribution and energy generation must yield to this policy shift and start redirecting all their investments and commit to ambitious and timebound RE targets.

“Greenpeace expresses its willingness to work with DOE in ensuring that we are on track toward achieving 100% RE for the country to protect our people, especially the frontline communities who are grappling with the impacts of the country’s addiction to coal.”

Notes to editors:

[1] A recent report ranked the Philippines as 2nd among the worst in the Southeast Asia power sector scorecard due to the unrelenting reliance on coal energy by the government. The report says the Philippines must increase its RE target to 50 percent by 2030.

Media contact:

Khevin Yu, Campaigner, Greenpeace Philippines, +63 998 966 4807, [email protected]

Angeli Cantillana

Communications Campaigner, Greenpeace Philippines, [email protected] | +63 998 595 9733

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