Faith-based groups and green activists in the Philippines this week warned against proposals to use fossil gas to address the country’s power woes.
“We’re concerned our country is jumping into more decades of costly electricity and energy insecurity by opting to develop another fossil fuel,” said Avril De Torres of the Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development.
The Philippine Congress has recently opened discussions on proposals to resume drilling activities to find sources of fossil gas to replace depleting supply from the country’s existing fossil gas field.
De Torres said fossil gas, like coal, “will be dependent on imported fuel supply and will expose consumers to volatile price fluctuations.”
The country has recently experienced a series of rotational blackouts as low power reserves hit the Luzon grid in the northern part of the country.
The group Power for People Coalition said the situation is “a glimpse of sustained unreliability of power systems” in the country should it turn to another fossil fuel to address power needs.
“There is still no clear assessment as to what role fossil gas must play in improving our people’s access to clean and affordable electricity amid many potential renewable sources,” said De Torres.
She decried the country’s lack of “clear fossil fuel exit strategy” to adhere to a low-carbon energy transition as required by the climate crisis.
Several faith-based groups have also expressed their opposition to the proposal to use fossil gas, saying it “creates more problems than solutions not only for consumers but also for the environment.”
Lawyer Liza Osorio of Oceana Philippines said many of the proposed liquefied natural gas infrastructure will be placed in one of the most environmentally sensitive areas in the country.
“The construction and operation of these facilities, sitting at the center of marine shore fish biodiversity, pose grave threat to the status of the area as a protected seascape,” she said.
The various groups, including Caritas Philippines, the Global Catholic Climate Movement Pilipinas, and Living Laudato Si’ Philippines, issued a solidarity statement that they plan to submit to Congress.
