Updated February 21, 2018, 12:30 PM
Local geothermal leader Energy
Development Corporation (EDC), said yesterday it is more determined to continue
its investments in a low carbon future, following its inclusion in the Carbon
Clean 200™ list. The ranking was based on the companies’ total clean energy revenues
as rated by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).
As the only Philippine company on
the list, EDC joins the world’s largest publicly-traded firms in leading the
way in solutions for the global transition to a clean energy future.
The Lopez-owned EDC is a carbon
neutral company and is the leading renewable energy company in the
Philippines. Its total installed capacity of 1,458MW from geothermal,
wind, solar, and hydro power sources accounts for 21% of the total installed
renewable energy (RE) in the country. EDC has likewise committed to
making RE more accessible to Filipinos to help drive a low-carbon economy for
the country. Consequently, EDC’s leadership has also pledged to not invest in
coal.
The company’s commitment to the
cause is also reinforced by EDC’s continuous partnership with the Philippines
Renewable Energy Holdings Corporation (PREHC), a consortium of investors
composed of funds managed by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (Mira)
and Arran Investment Pte Ltd (Arran), an affiliate of GIC Pte Ltd. PREHC’s
31.7% acquisition of EDC’s total outstanding voting shares from existing
shareholders is the largest single foreign investment in the country under the
Duterte administration.
Launched in 2016, Clean 200 is an
initiative of non-profit foundation ‘As You Sow’ – whose mission is to promote
environment and social corporate responsibility, and ‘Corporate Knights’ – a
Toronto-based media and research company that produces corporate rankings,
research reports and financial product ratings based on corporate
sustainability performance.
The report was produced to start a
dialogue on how investors can work together to achieve a clean energy economy
and how to best evaluate and highlight those that are already transitioning to
clean energy. Only companies with a market capitalization greater than $1
billion and have earned more than 10 percent of its total revenues from clean
energy sources are eligible to be considered in the list.
Clean 200 excludes all oil and gas
companies and utilities that generate less than 50 percent of their power from
renewable sources, as well as the top 100 coal companies measured by
reserves. It also disqualifies companies profiting from weapons
manufacturing, tropical deforestation, the use of child and/or forced labor,
and companies that engage in negative climate lobbying.
Twenty-nine countries are
represented in the latest Clean 200 group, which have an average market
capitalization of $9.4 billion and generate over $363 billion in clean energy
revenues per year. China had the most number of companies in the list with 68,
followed by the US with 21 firms, and Japan with 21 corporations.
EDC, which is ranked 119th, hopes to
move up on the list as it achieves its growth objectives in the coming years.
In 2016, the company generated 8,531.5GWh that helped the country avoid 7.5
million tons of carbon dioxide.
EDC goes beyond generating RE to
help in decarbonizing the country by restoring forests through its BINHI
greening legacy. It has planted 6.2 million seedlings covering 8,964 hectares
of denuded land in 2016. This resulted in 793,563 tons of carbon dioxide
sequestered in 2018. That is on top of the 2.4 million tons of equivalent
carbon sequestered in biomass for taking care of our geothermal reservations.
EDC’s carbon footprint of 806,117
CO2e from its operations in 2016 is only 30% of the carbon absorption of the
forests and plantations that it nurtures.
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