First Gen-owned Energy Development Corporation (EDC), the country’s largest renewable energy producer by way of its core geothermal operations, has launched a multi-sectoral movement toward attaining net zero carbon emissions among businesses in the Philippines.
Dubbed the Net Zero Carbon Alliance, EDC is spearheading the movement for the country to become carbon neutral, in line with the Department of Energy’s (DOE) goal to reduce carbon emissions by as much as 75 percent as part of the government’s Nationally Determined Contributions to the landmark global COP 21 Paris climate change agreement.
“We are putting into action our revitalized mission in the Lopez Group to ‘forge collaborative pathways for a decarbonized and regenerative future’ by seeking partnerships and synergies with fellow enterprises in the country,” says EDC president and chief operating officer Richard B. Tantoco.
The Net Zero Carbon program is strategically developed to provide partners with a roadmap to attain carbon neutrality through the sharing of best practices and scaling up of carbon emission offsetting and tracking, as well as assistance in obtaining third-party certification of carbon emissions and offsets, and even access to “green” financing, among many other capacity-building tools.
EDC’s guidance will be primarily based on its experience as a carbon negative company through its 100% RE operations and protection and restoration of the forests within its geothermal projects sites. With EDC’s established decarbonization mechanisms, partners can adopt these practices and leverage them toward carbon offsetting and sequestration.
The pioneering members of the Net Zero Carbon Alliance include homegrown enterprises ArthaLand property developer, Lopez Group affiliate First Balfour construction company, Drink sustainability communications agency, Silliman University in Dumaguete, Negros Oriental, as well as the local operations of multinational firms Analog Devices, Coca-Cola, Knowles Electronics, and Unilever.
“We are extremely excited with the enthusiastic participation of our partners and we are looking forward to working with more and more enterprises in the local business sector as we move toward our common goal of mitigating the global challenge of climate change,” says Tantoco.
EDC is the country’s biggest 100-percent RE company that accounts for over 40 percent of the Philippines’ RE output and serves about 10 percent of the country’s overall electricity demand with its installed capacity of almost 1,500MW. Its 1,181MW geothermal portfolio accounts for 62 percent of the country’s total installed geothermal capacity and has put the Philippines on the map as the world’s third largest geothermal power producer.
