The Philippines is very good on paper in terms of adopting sustainable energy policies, but average on the execution of such laws, a report from the World Bank showed.
Based on the multilateral lender’s Rise (Regulatory Indicators for Sustainable Energy) 2020 report, the Philippines scored 51 out of 100 points along with Nigeria.
The report measured policy progress in 138 countries on four areas—renewable energy, energy efficiency, electricity access and access to clean cooking.
These were the four target areas of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7), which called for achieving access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030.
Overall, India was at the top of the list with 86 points. China earned 56 points while the United States has 36 points.
The report classified the countries in three groups—those who did well with at least 67 points, those that were middling with 34 to 66 points, and the laggards with less than 34 points.
The Philippines scored 80 points in the “electricity access” category, trailing only Bangladesh with 81 points.
While the Philippines earned 100 points for electrification planning, it had only 50 points in terms of the actual approved energization plan.
Also, the Philippine plan did not include service-level targets—such as the number of guaranteed hours electricity should be available—and did not address the particular needs of female-headed households and of informal settlers. The plan also did not use geospatial mapping.
In terms of renewable energy, the Philippines earned 59 points along with Kenya in Africa.
The Philippines did have a legal framework for clean energy, but was mediocre in terms of planning for renewable energy expansion and incentives for renewable energy (60 points). Worse, the country has no carbon pricing and monitoring in place.
Further, the Philippines was similarly mediocre in energy efficiency (57 points along with Chile) and a laggard in clean cooking (8 points along with Burundi, South Sudan and Vanuatu).
“The prospect of a post-pandemic recovery and low carbon growth presents policymakers with opportunities to accelerate adoption of sustainable energy policies and to quicken the pace toward achieving universal access to energy,” Makhtar Diop, World Bank vice president for infrastructure, said in a statement.
“Recovery plans are also opportunities to set longer-term strategies and to align energy policies with SDG7 targets over the next decade,” Diop said.