Philippines: Arroyo ‘Green-Washing’ Privatization of Power industry

How can the Arroyo administration claim to champion the cause of climate change at the Bali Conference when it is in fact rushing to build more coal power plants and sell these to foreign firms, Philippine environmental activists today noted.

“There is growing consensus particularly among the peoples organizations, environmentalists, NGOs and experts that nothing concrete and significant will come out of the Bali conference to address global warming,” Bautista said.

“There is a snowballing opposition to the particular mechanisms that being put out by the Bali conference such as Carbon Trading, Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and new facility proposals of World Bank such as the Reduction of Emission from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) and Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF),” Clemente Bautista Jr., National Coordinator of green activist group Kalikasan Peoples Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) said.

“These mechanisms and facilities proposed by the international financing institutions such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank in tandem with big businesses will further increase the carbon emissions of transnational corporations (TNCs) and will have negative and adverse impacts on the environment and communities,” Bautista said.

“The mechanisms proposed at the Bali Conference will allow foreign TNCs to maintain and exceed their greenhouse gas emission quotas by buying carbon credits from poorer countries such as the Philippines. This will not alter the current rate of global pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and only lead to more global warming and climate change in the long term,” Bautista said.

“Instead of seriously addressing the issue of climate change and its effects on the poor, the Arroyo government is engaged in the privatization and expansion of Philippine coal power plants. It also is inviting foreign investors for massive bio-fuel projects that will displace thousands of Filipino farmers from their livelihoods,” Bautista said .

“The Arroyo administration continues to sell indigenous energy resources to foreign interests rather than maximize and develop it to provide clean, locally-sourced energy,” Bautista said.

“Philippine coal energy facilities are being privatized and primed for expansion. The Masinloc coal-fired power plant in Zambales is now being acquired by US-based AES Corporation. The Ilijan natural gas-generating facility in Batangas formerly owned by Mirant is now being eyed for expansion by Team Energy Corp. of Japan and the Korea Electric Power Corp. (Kepco). Also eyed for expansion are the 700-megawatt Pagbilao coal-fired power plant in Quezon and the 1,000-megawatt Sual coal facility in Pangasinan,” Bautista enumerated.

“Philippine government officials are even allowing the construction of more coal facilities, such as the case of local officials in Iloilo who recently allowed firms to build a 100-megawatt coal-fired power plant in La Paz,” Bautista said.

“These developments alone contradict any proclaimed effort by the Arroyo administration to address climate change. Coal-fired power plants are a messy operation, environmentally and socially. In the United States, coal-fired power plants were responsible for emitting massive amounts of pollutants such as carbon dioxide, mercury, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur dioxide,” Bautista said.

In addition to supporting the privatization and expansion of coal-fired power plants in the Philippines, the Arroyo administration is also busy facilitating the entry of carbon trading through biofuels plantation and “reforestation” projects which have dubious environmental value and which will only allow the entry and control of more foreign big businesses in Philippine lands, Bautista said. ###

Reference:
Mr. Clemente Bautista, Jr. National Coordinator, Kalikasan-PNE (0922-844-9787)

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