Mexico and the Philippines: Building a public base for energy reform

 

By John C. Topping, Jr.

Cleantech Asia Online
1 July 2009

 

Sometime in late 2008, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed into law the Renewable Energy Act of the Philippines. The Act that drew support across party lines in the Congress of the Philippines and enabled this island nation of around 90 million people to move to the forefront in the Asia Pacific region in clean energy policy reform. Employing ideas most successful in Europe and North America in speeding clean energy growth like Renewable Portfolio Standards, a Feed-in Tariff and Net Metering- this law provides the Philippines with stronger tools than have yet been used by any other developing nation to speed growth of renewable energy.

 

Several weeks after the enactment of this historic legislation, Mexico, a developing nation with a population just slightly larger than that of the Philippines, astonished the world with a declaration at the international climate conference in Poznan, Poland. Mexico indicated its willingness to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 50% below 2002 levels in 2050 provided that richer countries would provide resources to help finance a clean energy transition. Mexico’s commitment was quite remarkable on one count –its per capita greenhouse emissions are less than 30% of that of the US.

 

A common thread ties together the pioneering renewable energy legislation in the Philippines and Mexico’s ambitious greenhouse mitigation commitment- a grassroots- based clamoring for action. More than any nation in the Asia Pacific region, the Philippines has fostered public awareness of climate change. As early as 1992 color comic books in Pilipino, the local language, ran a lengthy strip on climate change. A Philippine produced film, Global Warning, released shortly before the 1995 Manila Asia Pacific Leaders Climate Summit, conveyed much the same message that won an Academy Award a decade later for Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth. Just before the 1995 Manila Summit, local newspapers and television stations participated in a contest for the best stories on climate topics. Earthsavers Dream Ensemble, a remarkable song and dance group of young Filipinos, brought tears to the eyes of delegates with a moving performance under moonlit skies. Two and a half years later, about 20 Earthsavers, performing at the Kyoto Conference provided an emotional highlight that helped to tilt this fractious conference toward an agreement.

 

Public consciousness of climate change has been of much more recent vintage in Mexico, a blend of happy circumstance and appeals to national pride in leading North America in climate protection. Luis Roberto Acosta, a scientist spearheading an effort to build the world’s highest climate observatory atop the Sierra Negra, a place adjacent to one of the world’s most powerful radio telescopes, generated national excitement to create the world’s first Interactive Climate Awareness and Response Network. This links the Crispin Tickell Observatory with climate theaters in science museums and environmental outreach centers. The Observatory should be fully operational this October 2009. But in February 2009, a climate theater was built in an outreach center at the Flor del Bosque Park in Puebla, Mexico. This theater averaged about a thousand visitors each day who saw 37-minute multimedia presentations on climate change. A similar theater has been built in Cancun and work is underway in Mexico City and Cuernavaca, and likely soon in Toluca and Veracruz. Within 18 months it is anticipated that over 20,000 people a week will receive climate change briefings in centers throughout Mexico, and many of these individuals will be inspired to become climate problem solvers on their own computers, using online tools. The building of this Interactive Network has already catalyzed a movement by Mexican industry. Industry associations in the States of Mexico and Puebla, that together hold a quarter of Mexico’s industry, have asked the Climate Institute, coordinator of the Interactive Network, to partner in identifying clean energy opportunities.

 

In the near term energy recycling or cogeneration, especially harvesting of industrial waste heat for electricity, and enhanced consumer sector efficiency are likely to be the cheapest large-scale sources of greenhouse gas reductions. The Interactive Network in Mexico seeks to make individuals aware of how their families and firms can save money while helping the environment.

 

On the other side of the Pacific, the landmark Renewable Energy Act provides an opportunity for the Philippines to emerge as an Asia Pacific leader in renewable energy, especially geothermal, ocean energy and biomass. By extending its Renewable Energy Act to facilitate further the harvesting of power from industrial waste heat and instituting some interactive systems to encourage online problem solving, the Philippines can leverage its head start in climate consciousness to become a world leader in clean energy innovation.