CCC Urges CEOs to Join the Green Energy Revolution
June 09, 2019 Sunday
Makati City, Philippines 10 June 2019 – “We are now living in a period of exponential transformation. We’re seeing the beginnings of a radical change in the world’s energy system,” Secretary Emmanuel M. De Guzman of the Climate Change Commission (CCC) said as he urged chief executive officers to join the green energy revolution during the CEO Forum on Financing Government Energy Efficiency Projects held in Dusit Thani Manila recently.
Citing a report released by the International Renewable Energy Agency, De Guzman said that the decade-long trend of strong growth in renewable energy capacity continued in 2018. “As total global renewable energy generation capacity reached 2,351 gigawatts at the end of last year, renewable energy now accounts for a third of global power capacity ,” he noted.
Attended by business leaders, government officials, and civil society, the forum which was organized by the European Union-supported Access to Sustainable Energy Programme and the Department of Energy aims to facilitate discussions on key issues and challenges in implementing energy efficiency projects.
In his keynote address, De Guzman challenged business leaders to invest in clean and green infrastructure and practices including energy efficiency and renewable energy. He noted that the energy sector has consistently accounted for a significant percentage of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions and, therefore, offers the highest mitigation opportunity for the country’s Nationally Determined Contribution for the Paris Agreement.
“Energy efficiency is the easiest and often cheapest way to reduce the need for expansion of power generation. And with the country’s energy demand projected to increase by 80 percent between 2017 and 2040, improving energy efficiency in the building sector would be our best course to reduce emissions,” De Guzman said.
De Guzman added that renewable energy can provide a major share of the Philippine electricity mix in a stable and reliable manner and at the same time increase energy self-sufficiency and reduce supply-related risks.
“There is no debate that coal is the most carbon-intensive of all fossil fuels. It brings serious public health, ecological, and economic risks to the country,” he explained. “Renewable energy now presents the biggest opportunity for local investment,” he added.
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