Category: Global

300-strong cli­mate activists and anti-coal advo­cates stormed the Depart­ment of Ener­gy to voice out their oppo­si­tion to coal mines and coal-fired pow­er plants pro­mot­ed by the gov­ern­ment and to launch the group’s Cam­paign Against Dirty Ener­gy and for People’s Access to Safe, Renew­able and Demo­c­ra­t­ic Ener­gy Alter­na­tives.

This is in cel­e­bra­tion of Earth Day and the group’s Nation­al Day of Action against Coal.

Led by the Philip­pine Move­ment for Cli­mate Jus­tice (PMCJ), the groups brought body bags, gas masks and paper-made Philip­pine Cock­a­toos wear­ing masks to avoid the pol­lu­tion from coal and high­light­ed how coal dam­ages not only the envi­ron­ment and bio­di­ver­si­ty but our lives, lit­er­al­ly tak­ing lives -, thus, the state­ment: COAL KILLS.

COAL KILLS—Why is coal dirty, tox­ic

Ger­ry Arances, nation­al coor­di­na­tor of PMCJ explained: “The pro­mo­tion of coal as a major source of ener­gy of Fil­ipino com­mu­ni­ties is not the right solu­tion to the alleged pow­er cri­sis in sev­er­al parts of the coun­try. First of all, coal emits a large amount of heavy met­als such as mer­cury and arsenic – con­t­a­m­i­nat­ing our waters; gen­er­ates 500 tons of small air­borne par­ti­cles which cause asth­ma, bron­chi­tis, and aggra­vate heart dis­ease; coal ash dis­pos­al pos­es a very high risk of caus­ing can­cer to those exposed.

Sec­ond, coal plant emis­sions in sur­round­ing areas kill the liveli­hoods of host com­mu­ni­ties as the stud­ies in coal plants in Masin­loc, Zam­bales, and Naga, Cebu, among oth­ers, have clear­ly shown.

Third, coal burn­ing is the major cause of glob­al warm­ing and fur­ther pro­mot­ing it will aggra­vate the cli­mate cri­sis that we are fac­ing now. This I believe is a greater dam­age to the present and future gen­er­a­tions who will have to suf­fer the inten­si­fied impacts of cli­mate change.“

RESIST COAL—Increasing local oppo­si­tion to coal

Two of the major pro­posed projects now include the coal plants in Cebu and Palawan.

In Cebu, ash sam­ples test­ed from a coal plants in Naga, Cebu, revealed pres­ence of heavy met­als such as mer­cury and arsenic (carcinogen),both haz­ardous sub­stances. Despite this, more projects are still under­way. Naga is home to two coal plants.

“Health records in Naga for 2009–2012 reveal can­cer as one if not the lead­ing cause of mor­tal­i­ty inci­dence in the area. Though could not be direct­ly linked to the coal plant oper­a­tions, that its inci­dence in Naga is high­er than nation­al aver­ages should be suf­fi­cient basis for alarm. While we debate as to whether or not coal is the cul­prit for the deaths, can­cer-relat­ed deaths in the area con­tin­ue to rise,” said Atty. Aaron Pedrosa of San­lakas.

“The same could be said of com­mu­ni­ties in Tole­do City, Cebu where anoth­er coal plant oper­ates. But instead of address­ing the health con­cerns and con­duct­ing a probe into the sit­u­a­tion, the gov­ern­ment intends to put up anoth­er plant in the province”, Pedrosa added.

Can­cer is among the many dis­eases that could be attrib­uted to con­tin­ued expo­sure to coal com­bus­tion wastes

Also threat­ened by coal projects is our Last Fron­tier, Palawan—where a 15MW coal-fired pow­er plant project is being pro­posed to respond to a pro­ject­ed loom­ing pow­er short­age in the province. Envi­ron­men­tal­ists and con­ser­va­tion­ists in the province are strong­ly oppos­ing as the plant is to be set up 1.5‑kilometers away from Rasa Island, home to the crit­i­cal­ly endan­gered Philip­pine Cock­a­too.

Kather­ine Leuch of Palawan Alliance for Clean Ener­gy asserts that “The super­fi­cial cheap­ness of coal should not be the only con­sid­er­a­tion for allow­ing a coal-fired pow­er plant in Palawan because the risks of such far out­weighs the ben­e­fits giv­en that Palawan is an eco­log­i­cal­ly rich and sen­si­tive province. The neg­a­tive effect of coal is as dark as it is.

What is sad­den­ing is that based on our study the pro­ject­ed pow­er short­age is unfound­ed. It is main­ly due to dis­tri­b­u­tion prob­lems and not because of the exist­ing sup­ply. Palawan can also pro­vide clean­er and safer alter­na­tives like mini hydro, and oth­er renew­able ener­gy sources.”

RE-ENERGIZE ALL—Shift to REnew­able, sus­tain­able ener­gy for all Fil­ipino com­mu­ni­ties

The Philip­pine Ener­gy Plan (PEP) 2008–2030 reveals that coal pro­duc­tion will con­tin­ue to esca­late. From 39 coal oper­at­ing con­tracts (COCs) in 2007, there are now 76 COCs—16 of which were award­ed -– last Feb­ru­ary by the gov­ern­ment.

Arances con­clud­ed: “The PEPs mas­sive pro­mo­tion of coal-based pow­er is alarm­ing and is a major cause of con­cern for our frag­ile ecosys­tem and the Philip­pine pop­u­la­tion. — Coal is far from the best or even good solu­tion to our pow­er cri­sis.

Stud­ies show that the country’s poten­tial renew­able ener­gy can pro­vide as high as more than 200,000 MW even with­out tap­ping solar pow­er. It is about time that we look at this and do away with large-scale, dirty and envi­ron­men­tal­ly-destruc­tive projects.

If the gov­ern­ment is as seri­ous about using renew­able ener­gy as it claims, it had best do away with con­tra­dic­to­ry poli­cies. Gov­ern­ment needs to revise its Philip­pine Ener­gy Plan to ensure that vul­ner­a­ble com­mu­ni­ties stop suf­fer­ing from the harm­ful effects of coal; start invest­ing in RE sources to make clean pow­er acces­si­ble and afford­able to our peo­ple.”

Local actions against coal

Anti-coal groups in host com­mu­ni­ties also led dif­fer­ent infor­ma­tion-aware­ness cam­paign activ­i­ties local­ly, includ­ing Cebu City, Davao City, Gen­er­al San­tos City, Palawan, Bataan, Leyte, and Que­zon.

In Cebu, around 100 activists dumped coal on a life-size map of the Philip­pines sym­bol­iz­ing the gov­ern­men­t’s rabid pro­mo­tion of car­bon-inten­sive tech­nol­o­gy and activ­i­ties treat­ing its adverse effects on the com­mu­ni­ty’s health, ecosys­tem and liveli­hoods as col­lat­er­al dam­age.

Last Sun­day, April 21, Supor­ta­do Move­ment and PMCJ also orga­nized a Bike Tour para sa Abot Kayang REnew­able Ener­gy in Marik­i­na, also in cel­e­bra­tion of Earth Day.

In Palawan, advo­cates from Palawan Alliance for Clean Ener­gy (PACE) installed stream­ers and COAL KILLS posters around Puer­to Prince­sa, while in Panacan, Nar­ra, Palawan sev­er­al dirty coal edu­ca­tion­al activ­i­ties were held Mem­bers of PACE also cam­paigned via local radio and a local forum the call against coal and oppo­si­tion to the pro­posed coal plant in Nar­ra, Palawan.