by Bernardo M. Villegas November 15,
2015
In the recently held Clean Asia
Energy Forum sponsored by the Asian Development Bank, speakers strongly
recommended greater investments in clean energy and energy efficiency to meet
rising Asian demand while limiting the impact of climate change. An optimistic
view was taken by Bindu Lohani, ADB vice-president for knowledge and management
and sustainable development. He pointed out that renewables are becoming
more competitive as technology progresses but lamented the fact that the low
hanging fruit of energy efficiency is not being sufficiently pushed in
Asia. He told the audience not to be deterred by the current low prices
of oil and other fossil fuels. Given the history of great volatility of
oil prices in the past, he surmised that “low prices will end even if we do not
know when.” On the other hand renewables continue to experience rapid
development and prices can only go down in the long run.
A local group called the Philippine
Solar Power Alliance (PSPA) shares the optimism of Mr. Lohani. The group, which
consists of the country’s solar power developers, signified their intention to
the National Renewable Energy Board (NREB) to build as much as 2,000 MW of
solar power projects in the country over the long run. Predictably, the
group has set as a condition certain innovations on the Feed-in-Tariff (FIT)
scheme, a framework under which the Department of Energy offers long-term
contracts and guaranteed pricing to renewable energy firms. One of
their requests is for FIT not to be based on output since in some countries
like Germany, with solar power becoming cheaper and more competitive, the
government has shifted to incentivizing batteries for solar power storage,
which can also benefit all sources of energy, whether renewable or not.
ADB announced that since the Asia
Clean energy Forum started nine years ago, clear energy investments in Asia and
the Pacific have risen to some $106 billion in 2013. It added that new
mechanisms to spur clean energy have become more common. Among these are
renewable portfolio standards, feed-in-tariffs, and concessional fundings for
clean energy projects. ADB has increased its own financing for cleaner
energy from only $280 million in 2005 to $2.4 billion in 2014. Despite
these efforts, however, 600 million in Asia still lack access to electricity
and dependency on fossil fuel remains high.
Worldwide the trend is no
different. According to economist Martin Wolf of the Financial Times
(June 24, 2015), the latest Statistical Review of World Energy of British
Petroleum shows that global demand for commercial energy continues to grow,
largely driven by growth of emerging countries, despite improvements in energy
efficiency. Moreover, fossil fuels still meet bulk of the demand.
In 2014, renewables contributed just over 2 percent of global primary energy
consumption. Together, nuclear power, hydroelectricity, and renewable
contributed merely 14 percent.
According to a report entitled “A
Global Apollo Programme to Combat Climate Change,” written by a number of
high-profile British scientists and economists, there is a need to generate a
technological revolution. They argue that this will require rapid
technological advances. Some progress is being achieved, notably the
collapse in the price of photovoltaic panels. Much more have to be done,
however. Publicly-funded research is under 2 percent of all
publicly-funded R&D or only $6 billion, which is dwarfed by the $101
billion spent on subsidies for renewable production and the humongous $550
billion used to subsidize fossil fuel production and consumption.
As Mr. Wolf wrote: “This is a grotesque picture. Far more
money needs to go to publicly funded research. The public sector has long
played a vital role in funding scientific and technological
breakthroughs. In this case, that role is particularly important, given
the agreed goal of reducing emissions and the fact that the energy sector
spends relatively little on R&D.”
These considerations bring us to the
recently published Encyclical Letter of Pope Francis entitled “Laudato Si” (On
Care For Our Common Home). Contrary to the views of some conservative
critics, this document does not purport to settle the issue on whether or not
it is human behavior that is the main cause of climate change. It is
still open to the view that climate change could be in large part explained by
non-human causes. It nevertheless recognizes the obvious fact that at the
micro level, there are decisions by business people that do not sufficiently
take into account their adverse impact on the climate.
No one can argue with this
fundamentally moral assessment of the actions of some industrialists: “An
assessment of the environmental impact of business ventures and projects demand
the transparent political processes involving a free exchange of views.
On the other hand, the forms of corruption which conceal the actual
environmental impact of a given project, in exchange for favors, usually
produce specious agreements which fail to inform adequately and to allow for a
full debate (par. 182)…Environmental impact assessment should not come after
the drawing up of a business proposition or the proposal of a particular
policy, plan or program. It should be part of the process from the
beginning, and be carried out in a way which is interdisciplinary, transparent
and free of all economic or political pressure.” (To be continued).
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