PH looks to tap new $10-B global fund to aid shift to green energy

The Philippines and a new $10-billion global fund are looking into a partnership to finance the country’s shift to green and renewable energy sources, the Department of Finance (DOF) said on Friday.

In a statement, the DOF said Secretary Carlos Dominguez III had met with Rockefeller Foundation president Rajiv Shah, who was also a pioneer of the private sector-led Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), on the sidelines of the 26th United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland.

Dominguez led the Philippine delegation to COP26 as chair-designate of the Climate Change Commission (CCC).

GEAPP, meanwhile, earlier pledged at least $10 billion “to help accelerate the implementation of clean energy projects in developing economies highly vulnerable to climate change,” the DOF said.

GEAPP also aimed to “deliver transformational programs that will accelerate and scale up an equitable energy transition in developing and emerging economies, while creating millions of jobs in the process,” the DOF added.

The DOF said Dominguez and Shah “briefly discussed a possible list of projects that the organization can help fund for the Philippines.”

In particular, Dominguez pitched the Philippines’ plan to decommission and repurpose coal-fired power plants in  Mindanao.

—Ben O. de Vera

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