Emergency

Tuesday afternoon in Metro Manila was shaky, quite literally. Some thought it was another vertigo-inducing afternoon but as it turned out, a magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck south of Manila, halting trains and prompting evacuations, especially in towering offices.

We are feeling more of these earthquakes now than ever before, especially in recent years and while we’re not yet sure if Tuesday’s quake was climate related, recent studies suggest links between rising sea-levels and increased frequency of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.

It’s therefore a welcome development that world leaders, companies and stakeholders are currently gathered in Dubai, UAE for COP28 or the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which will run until Dec. 12.

At the very least, COP28 puts the spotlight on “continued rising concentrations of greenhouse gasses from the decade between 2011 and 2020 that turbo charged dramatic glacier loss and sea-level rise,” as the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in a recent report.

It’s good that delegates from the Philippines joined the momentous event.

Eric Francia, president and CEO of Ayala Corp.’s ACEN, was among the speakers.

ACEN likewise announced that it has collaborated with the Coal to Clean Credit Initiative (CCCI), which has support from The Rockefeller Foundation, to explore a pilot project in the Philippines that would leverage carbon finance to phase out a coal-fired power plant and replace it with renewable energy.

The project covers ACEN’s South Luzon Thermal Energy Corp. (SLTEC) coal plant, which would become the world’s first coal-fired power plant to leverage carbon credits to enable its early decommissioning.

“Today’s development marks a critical contribution to accelerating a global energy transition. Without a rapid and proactively managed transition away from coal-fired power, the world will not meet its climate goals; the urgency of solving this problem cannot be understated. ACEN is proud to be working with The Rockefeller Foundation’s Coal to Clean Credit Initiative and the Monetary Authority of Singapore to develop this world-first project,” said Francia.

Congratulations Eric Francia, ACEN and the Ayala