Energy industry players are pledging their commitments to the country’s energy resiliency agenda, which includes making energy infrastructures less vulnerable to calamity-induced destructions.
Companies who made their pledges include Ayala Corporation Chief Executive Officer Jaime Zobel de Ayala, Aboitiz Equity Ventures CEO Erramon I. Aboitiz, First Pacific Co. Ltd. CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan, and Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation President and CEO Cesar G. Romero.
The companies involved have businesses and ventures related to using fossil fuels, having coal-fired power plant operations, or investments into the downstream oil industry.
These businesses contribute to emissions that contribute to climate change risks, which trigger natural disasters. Industry players will often give their share in the rehabilitation of affected energy facilities.
Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi declared the signing of memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the business magnates, but solidifying the agenda is still unclear.
According to Cusi in a Manila Bulletin report, the energy resiliency program “fleshes out the government’s disaster risk reduction plans, programs and activities intended to minimize the impact of calamities like earthquakes, typhoons and floods.”
However, the talks between DOE, the Philippines Disaster Resiliency Foundation (PDRF), and the business sector is still considerably implausible on a feasible energy resiliency point of view.
It was agreed that the token plans shall cover activities towards energy resiliency, do joint exercises to test disaster response protocols, and participate in other sectors in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.
