In response to a report that said the Philippines’ dependence on coal already exceeded China and Indonesia, despite the government’s supposed push to grow renewable energy sources, the Department of Energy said the local power sector’s differences between the two countries lie in “demographic, economic, and energy profiles.”
The DOE added that although coal continues to dominate the country’s energy mix, its power generation and emissions from coal remain “minimal.”
Citing data from the Global Energy Monitor Report as of January, the DOE said China and Indonesia have installed coal power plant capacity reaching 1,136.7 gigawatts and 51.6 GW, respectively. These figures were way higher than the Philippines 12.1 GW, it said.
It adds that the Philippines’ share in the global emissions from coal accounted for just 0.5 percent, still lower than China’s 29.2 percent and Indonesia’s 2.3 percent.
However, it must be noted that while the DOE continues to maintain a moratorium on the development of new coal plants, four such facilities approved prior to the freeze are set to go online in the next few years. Despite that focus and dependence on coal, the DOE claims that renewables would “overtake” coal plants by 2028, as the country would apparently focus on offshore wind.
Several countries, the Philippines included, have committed to shifting to clean energy sources, gradually cutting their dependence on coal-fired plants amid the latter’s impact on climate change. The Philippines aims to increase renewable energy’s share in the power mix to 35 percent by 2030 from the current 22 percent.
The tendency to turn to coal as a fuel can be understandable and maybe even tolerable, but it is not a sustainable path. The DOE may have set a moratorium on the development of new coal power plants, but the existing roster, along with incoming projects, ensure that our dependency on that fossil fuel is guaranteed for a longer period that it is ideal for our country and the planet. A determined effort to ensure that renewable energy can indeed take over will be necessary if the country won’t backslide into coal dependency.*
