Alminaza: Earth Hour 2021: Switch coal off, for good
THIS weekend, millions around the world once again participated in the annual Earth Hour, in which we were invited to switch our lights and appliances off for an hour. As much of the energy used by humanity is still sourced from fossil fuels, turning our lights off together encourages a decrease in our consumption of dirty energy and our carbon footprint. Each year, Earth Hour provides us with an opportunity to unite in action and reflection for our Common Home. It, too, brings to light an important question: why is our energy dirty in the first place?
Despite its immense renewable energy potential, the Philippines is heavily reliant on fossil fuels for its energy needs. A major part of our power mix is still occupied by coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel. This has caused many grievances to Filipinos, coal being costly to our people and nature in many different ways. Sadly, policy directions in our country have yet to mark an end to the reign of dirty energy. While the Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a moratorium on coal, it provided ways to keep many projects from being shelved, and leaves existing coal plants untouched and able to keep polluting.
It does not help that top Philippine banks are keeping coal plants running thanks to their financial support to the industry, even when they have the ability to switch coal off for good by restricting their funding for it. In particular, the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) and Banco De Oro (BDO) combined have invested over US$6 billion to support coal projects from 2009-2019. Despite claims that they are seeking to pursue sustainability and align to the changes required by the climate crisis, these banks and many others still have not publicly set limits on the financial support they provide to coal. Indeed it is concerning that the banks in whom we place our trust in the form of our financial resources, may be using that to fuel catastrophes we suffer.
Moreover, even while we strive to phase out coal in the country, corporations are already executing plans to make our energy sector reliant on other polluting sources, especially fossil gas. Instead of pushing for a transition to clean, affordable, and renewable energy, we find our government, banks, and energy companies furthering the destruction of our planet by tying us down to the use of more fossil fuels.
Our carbon-intensive ways are especially troublesome given our country's climate-vulnerability. We can see physical manifestations of this in the increasing frequency of devastating storms and sweltering high temperatures plaguing our nation today. No one is more affected by these changes than the poor who are also being robbed by high electricity prices caused by the inability of coal costs to keep stable amid fluctuations, and coal-affected communities who are slowly being poisoned to death by coal pollution.
Earth Hour reminds us of these issues at hand and prompts us to hold our authorities and local banks accountable for their role in aggravating climate change. Seeing that the path to a future that is cleaner seems to be blocked by the very leaders who must be taking us there, we may easily feel discouraged. But it is important to not lose hope in this fight. Our faith teaches us courage through the victorious stories of the small over the mighty. Through faith and hope, Noah survived the flood, David defeated Goliath, and Jesus triumphed over death. We too can rise from ever-growing climate problems and move the behemoths supporting fossil fuels.
For those of us who switched off our lights for Earth Hour, may we be reminded of the bigger reason behind our action. In the same way that we turned our lights off for our planet’s future, our government and our banks must permanently switch coal off through concrete policies to divest and facilitate a complete transition to renewable energy. As stewards of Creation, we hope for a time when Earth Hour would no longer be necessary, when the use of fossil fuels has been eradicated, and clean energy from renewables would be the norm across the globe.