The Philippines is a tropical country made up of thousands of islands in the Pacific ocean. Its location makes it susceptible to natural disasters but it also bestows it with vast natural resources. The nation has acknowledged that it is especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change, particularly rising sea levels and increasing disaster risks, and in light of this the Philippines has made commitments to limit increasing temperatures and switch to a cleaner energy supply.
The Philippines has abundant renewable energy resources and very limited availability of fossil fuels but the current energy use patterns do not reflect this, with the bulk of electricity generated in the Philippines coming from coal fired power plants. The Philippines has only a small amount of locally available coal so it imports the majority from Indonesia, China and Australia. Historically, oil-based power generation has also contributed a great deal to the energy mix and in the past 15 years, natural gas has been used more and more . The cost of electricity and fuel in the Philippines has long been high and as demand for energy continues to increase the Philippine government needs to improve the nation’s energy security by changing the energy portfolio to include more locally available resources and reduce expensive fossil fuel imports.
The Philippines is a signatory of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, where the main goal is to reduce the threat of climate change by limiting increasing global temperatures to below 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. The Philippines released its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions in October 2015 stating they would undertake a greenhouse gas emissions reductions of 70% by 2030 (relative to the business-as-usual scenario of 2000-2030) . Further to this the Philippines has set ambitious goals to become a leading clean energy nation in Southeast Asia. Their aim is to increase the renewable energy share of the portfolio by 200% in 20 years but it is yet to commit to any quotas.
To continue to read the full Philippines Report as part of our Research Series “The Future is Renewable: Targets and Policies by Country”, please click “Read More”.
