{"id":68654,"date":"2025-10-18T20:36:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T12:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/?p=68654"},"modified":"2025-10-20T13:33:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T05:33:32","slug":"department-of-energy-carbon-credit-rules-not-a-license-to-profit-must-cut-emissions-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/press\/68654\/department-of-energy-carbon-credit-rules-not-a-license-to-profit-must-cut-emissions-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Greenpeace to DOE: Carbon-credit rules not a license to profit\u2014must cut emissions now"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>18 October 2025, Quezon City <\/em>\u2014 Greenpeace Philippines called out the Department of Energy (DOE) for rushing its new carbon-credit framework, emphasizing that carbon offsetting is a false solution that won\u2019t do much to stop emissions. The group called on the government to instead focus on policies and regulations that advance actual emissions reductions and make companies pay for climate pollution.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cDOE is railroading carbon markets purportedly to reduce emissions\u2014but at the same time, they\u2019re playing godfather to fossil gas projects, and putting more exemptions to the coal plant moratorium. This clearly doesn\u2019t add up,\u201d said Greenpeace campaigner Jeffferson Chua, in response to the energy department\u2019s recent rollout2 of guidelines for carbon credits. \u201cInstead, what it shows is that the DOE is bowing down to pressure from high emitting industries who want to turn pollution into profit, rather than actually reduce their emissions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cCarbon markets have been in existence for more than two decades, and in that period, global emissions have skyrocketed,\u201d said Chua, \u201cNow, the DOE is wants to use this failed model, a heavily market-driven approach, without any safeguards: no public registry, no open data, no protection against pass-through costs, and no guarantee that communities will benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>Greenpeace warned that without a real roadmap to cut emissions, the DOE\u2019s rules could give polluters a free pass. \u201cIn the absence of clear targets or standards to move away from fossil fuels, the DOE\u2019s rules risk legitimizing unregulated voluntary carbon markets. Fossil fuel companies would gain the most, earning more profits in the guise of \u2018low-carbon\u2019 responsibility,\u201d Chua added.<\/p>\n\n<p>The recently published DOE Department Circular DC2025-09-0018 logs a \u201cgeneral framework\u201d for carbon trading aligned with Article 6 pathway\u2013ITMOs, future domestic compliance markets, and voluntary offsets. But Greenpeace said this approach mirrors flawed systems abroad such as in China, and New Zealand (specifically for forestry credits). Greenpeace says that even the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) took over two decades to work, and despite its current strong enforcement, is still far from perfect.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cCarbon markets are what they are: markets,\u201d Chua said. \u201cThis means that by design, the bottom line is how companies can gain the most profit and ensure the least regulation. Without strong oversight, this framework just enables companies\u2019 greenwashing and profiteering, while their emissions stay the same or even rise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cTo the DOE, we say: Why the rush?\u201d said Chua. \u201cBefore jumping into carbon markets, the government must first lay down a just energy transition roadmap first, to pull the country\u2019s energy grid away from oil, gas, and coal. If carbon finance is used at all, it must deliver real emission cuts and lead to decarbonization, instead of being yet another loophole for rich polluters to satiate their greed.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n<p><strong>Notes to editors:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>[1] Philippine Information Agency: <a href=\"https:\/\/pia.gov.ph\/press-release\/doe-issues-general-framework-for-carbon-credits-in-the-energy-sector\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">DOE Issues General Framework for Carbon Credits in the Energy Sector <\/a><\/p>\n\n<p>[2] DOE Department Circular 2025-09-0018: <a href=\"https:\/\/prod-cms.doe.gov.ph\/documents\/d\/guest\/dc2025-09-0018\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Providing General Guidelines for the Generation, Management, and Monitoring of Carbon Credits in the Energy Sector<\/a><\/p>\n\n<p><br><br><strong><strong>For requests for interviews and other information, please contact:<\/strong><br><\/strong><br><strong>James Relativo,<\/strong> Communications Campaigner<br>Greenpeace Southeast Asia \u2013 Philippines<br>james.relativo@greenpeace.org | +63 919 069 3424 (Viber &amp; WhatsApp)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DOE is railroading carbon markets purportedly to reduce emissions\u2014but at the same time, they\u2019re playing godfather to fossil gas projects, and putting more exemptions to the coal plant moratorium. This clearly doesn\u2019t add up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":68656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6,7],"p4-page-type":[14],"class_list":["post-68654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sustainability","tag-climate","tag-energy","p4-page-type-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68654"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68657,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68654\/revisions\/68657"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68654"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=68654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}