The Worldwatch Institute is helping the Philippines to develop a Sustainable Energy Roadmap with the goal of sourcing all of the nation’s electricity systems entirely from renewable energy within a decade. Climate Change Commissioner and former Senator Heherson Alvarez invited The Worldwatch Institute’s Climate and Energy Director, Alexander Ochs to present an integrated methodology to achieve this ambitious goal.
Worldwatch’s Sustainable Energy Roadmap is not just about energy efficiency and renewable sources of power, it is an integrated approach to examining the technical, socioeconomic, financial and policy changes necessary for transitioning to a an intelligent grid energy system.
“The Philippines is already a leader in geothermal and hydropower,” said Ochs. “But it’s essential now to chart a future that is socially, economically and environmentally sustainable and addresses the key challenge of providing affordable and reliable energy access for all Filipinos. With our Sustainable Energy Roadmap approach, Worldwatch will help to expand access to energy, address social needs, and advance economic development while protecting local environments and a stable global climate.”
Components of a Sustainable Energy Roadmap, involve an analysis of the potential for energy efficiency, detailed GIS mapping of local renewable energy resources, and an infrastructure inventory that assesses solutions for grid renovation and energy storage. These Roadmaps also explore the socioeconomic impacts of diverse energy pathways, including the potential for sustainable energy development to create jobs, reduce costs associated and healthcare.
“This country has an enormous opportunity to demonstrate how smart and integrated energy planning can be done in the 21st century,” said Ochs. “Any country in the world has great potential for at least one renewable resource, such as biomass, geothermal, hydro, ocean, solar or wind. The Philippines has them all, as well as the human resources, technological know-how, and political leadership necessary to make a low-emissions transition a reality within less than a generation.”
Worldwatch’s Roadmaps can be applied anywhere—in industrialized and developing countries—and at multiple levels of political organization, from the municipal to the regional. Worldwatch’s Climate and Energy program identifies key components of energy and transportation systems that de-carbonize our economies, boost energy efficiency, spur innovation and job creation, address resource scarcity, and reduce local environmental pollution.
Click here to learn more about the Institute’s Sustainable Energy Roadmaps: Guiding the Global Shift to Domestic Renewables.
© 2013, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.
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