{"id":3226,"date":"2018-03-28T06:50:33","date_gmt":"2018-03-28T06:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/icleiseas.org\/?p=3226"},"modified":"2018-03-28T06:50:33","modified_gmt":"2018-03-28T06:50:33","slug":"this-small-city-in-the-philippines-is-taking-big-steps-to-curb-emissions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/2018\/03\/28\/this-small-city-in-the-philippines-is-taking-big-steps-to-curb-emissions\/","title":{"rendered":"This small city in the Philippines is taking big steps to curb emissions"},"content":{"rendered":"

A version of this article first appeared in Eco-Business<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The making of a truly green city begins with\u00a0calculating its carbon emissions, and then introducing policies that will spur the transition to renewable energy,\u00a0say officials from San Carlos City in the\u00a0Philippines.<\/em><\/p>\n

San Carlos City in Negros Occidental,\u00a0the Philippines, was once home to one of the country\u2019s biggest sugar mills. But as the\u00a0growth of the sugar industry\u00a0has slowed\u00a0<\/strong>since the 1980s, the city has sought\u00a0alternative means of generating revenue.\u00a0It has harnessed one of its most abundant natural resources: sunshine.<\/p>\n

As a coastal city with a deep natural mangrove harbour, San Carlos\u00a0is more resilient than most\u00a0Philippine cities to extreme weather. And with limited cloud cover, the city enjoys\u00a0more sunshine than other parts of the country,\u00a0so has plenty of renewable energy potential.<\/p>\n

As such,\u00a0San Carlos is shaping up to be the Philippines\u2019\u00a0renewable energy hub.<\/p>\n

In 2014, a 45-megawatt solar plant\u2014one of the country\u2019s first solar facilities\u2014was built in San Carlos City by renewable energy company San Carlos Solar Energy.\u00a0In 2016, a 59-megawatt solar power plant went into operation. The plant is owned by San Carlos Sun Power Inc.,\u00a0a subsidiary of AboitizPower, one of the country\u2019s leading renewable energy developers.<\/p>\n

Besides solar power farms, San Carlos City is home to one of the country\u2019s biggest biomass and bioethanol plants.<\/p>\n

But according to\u00a0Arthur Batomalaque, assistant head of the City Environment Management Office (CEMO), being a top destination for renewable energy development is not enough to make San Carlos City \u201cgreen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the city\u2019s economy continues to grow rapidly, we will need to continue to engage in initiatives that protect our environment,\u201d Batomalaque said.<\/p>\n

As such in 2017, San Carlos City launched\u00a0a trailblazing project: it conducted a community-level greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventory.<\/p>\n

Using the Global Protocol for Community-Scale GHG Emissions Inventories, a tool jointly developed by non-government organisations ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI<\/span><\/a>), C40 Cities, and think tank\u00a0World Resources Institute (WRI<\/span><\/a>)<\/a>, San Carlos City embarked on a project that sought to\u00a0calculate the emissions from its commercial and residential buildings, transport, waste,\u00a0water treatment, agriculture, and\u00a0industry.<\/p>\n

The inventory, using 2015 as its base year and completed\u00a0last year, revealed that the city\u2019s\u00a0total emissions amounted to 88,330 tonnes of carbon dioxide from its energy, transport, agriculture, and waste\u00a0sectors.<\/strong>\u00a0This is equivalent to more than 39,463\u00a0tonnes\u00a0of coal burned.<\/p>\n

Batomalaque said in an interview with ICLEI\u00a0that a GHG inventory can be used as\u00a0<\/strong>a basis for local government plans\u00a0to reduce emissions.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe completion of the city\u2019s GHG emissions inventory is a milestone for us. This is in line with our goal to become a green city,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

What renewable energy and the 1.5 degree threshold means for Philippine cities<\/h4>\n

The National Climate Change Adaptation Plan, drafted in 2011 by the country\u2019s Climate Change Commission, states that if climate\u00a0<\/strong>change\u00a0related disasters become\u00a0more frequent, the Philippines will be left more vulnerable due to exacerbating factors of population growth, lack of preparation, and inadequate risk management.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2015, the\u00a0Global Risk Index<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/a>identified the Philippines as the most at-risk country for climate change.<\/p>\n

A warmer world threatens agriculture,\u00a0which makes up a fifth of the Philippine\u2019s total economic activity and provides jobs for almost 30 per cent of the population. Many cities in the Philippines, like San Carlos, have rural\u00a0<\/strong>communities where agriculture is the main economic activity.<\/p>\n

Coastal cities\u00a0like San Carlos also\u00a0depend on the ocean for their food and livelihood,\u00a0and\u00a0<\/strong>if global temperatures increase beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius,\u00a0as they are predicted to at the current rate of greenhouse gas emissions, marine life will be gone as we know it by 2100, according to a report by\u00a0Climate Analytics.\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Recognising that San Carlos City is highly\u00a0<\/strong>vulnerable to climate impacts, its local government is\u00a0looking\u00a0to lower emissions by embracing clean technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe energy sector is one of the main drivers of cities\u2019 economic activities and GHG emissions. As such, there is clamor for clean energy sources,\u201d ICLEI SEAS regional program manager, Ranell Dedicatoria said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile implementing renewable energy may seem costly at the onset, in the long run it\u00a0comes with a number of benefits including job generation, water security, and better air quality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A version of this article first appeared in Eco-Business. The making of a truly green city begins with\u00a0calculating its carbon emissions, and then introducing policies that will spur the transition to renewable energy,\u00a0say officials from San Carlos City in the\u00a0Philippines. San Carlos City in Negros Occidental,\u00a0the Philippines, was once home to one of the country\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3226"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3228,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3226\/revisions\/3228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}