Adopt balanced, rational carbon emission reduction strategies — PCCI

The country’s biggest trade group, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), has asked lawmakers and the Philippine government to adopt a balanced and rational approach on legislations and other policies and programs that impose stringent decarbonization targets on industries to reach the net-zero emission by 2050 of the Paris Agreement.

During a meeting to discuss House Bill 7705 or the Low Carbon Economy bill called jointly by the PCCI’s Committees on Energy and Power, Industry and Environment and Climate Change, private sector stakeholders raised their concern on the impact to industries and to the sustainability of the economy, if the bill as it is, is enacted into a law.

“This legislation represents a bold step towards sustainability and responsibility. But it should not come at a cost to businesses and to the economy as a whole,” PCCI chairman and director for Energy and Power George Barcelon, said.

He said the cost is most pronounced in the agriculture and food industry.

Decarbonization targets

While farming/food production is not directly affected, inputs to and processes and that go with food production and those along its supply chain are among those that will be required to have decarbonization targets.

“This will eventually affect the food production sector and threaten further the country’s already fragile food security situation,” Atty. Joseph Fabul of the Philippine Chamber of Food Manufacturers emphasized.

The cement and construction industries echoed similar apprehensions, as Cirilo Pestano of the Cement Manufacturers Association of the Philippines noted that the cement industry (as well as steel and construction) relies heavily on energy and power which is 40 percebt of their production cost, and logistics and transportation for distribution.

Heavy price

“Compliance options will come at a heavy price. Even now, the cement industry is already suffering from cement imports from Vietnam, where production and cost of power are subsidized by their government,” Pestano said.

PCCI’s Energy Committee Officers David Chua and Carlos Aboitiz noted that the standards set forth in the proposed bill are first world standards and need to be aligned with third world realities.

The Philippines, they said, is a small country consuming small amounts of energy and produces little amounts of greenhouse gas emissions with 3 times less than the global average in carbon dioxide emissions per capita.

Barcelon stressed that attaining targets for low carbon growth will entail advances in technology.

But developing these technologies are themselves costly to the environment, he said, citing the case of a Tesla battery, which needs 12 tons of rock for Lithium, five tons of cobalt minerals, three tons of nickel ore and 12 tons of copper ore.

Anchor targets on actual data

The PCCI also urged the country’s legislators and policymakers to anchor decarbonization targets on actual data gathered from various industries and to come up with policy and/or program recommendations after undertaking a thorough cost-benefit analysis, benchmarking on what other countries in ASEAN are doing with respect to reducing their carbon emissions and identifying best practices.

Currently, there are programs already in place by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources under the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, by the Department of Energy on the Energy Efficiency and Conservation and the Renewable Energy Acts and by the Department of Transportation on the e-Vehicles Act.