Echoing ‘code red’ alarm on the escalated global warming, leading renewable energy developer Energy Development Corporation (EDC) is reinforcing calls for the country to accelerate its energy mix transition to cleaner energy technologies -- primarily renewable energy and the electrification of its transport sector; and such shall be complemented with lifestyle changes of humanity.

In a virtual event, EDC President and CEO Richard B. Tantoco sounded off that “unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, limiting global warming within 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius will be beyond reach.”

He qualified that “contrary to what a lot of us may think, the Covid-19 pandemic is not our greatest problem...even when we get out of this pandemic, the biggest crisis of our time still remains and that’s climate change.”

Citing the recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Tantoco indicated that there will be “irreversible consequences of climate change if no drastic action is taken to decarbonize the atmosphere.”

He specified that “among the undeniable facts the IPCC report established was that: human activities have unequivocally warmed the oceans, land and atmosphere, when it was merely deemed a possibility eight years ago.”

And as assessed by climate scientists, Tantoco conveyed that “global surface temperatures will continue to increase at least until 2050,” further pointing out that “under most scenarios, crossing 1.5 degrees will happen in the early 2030s.”

The EDC chief executive, nevertheless, stipulated that “in the absence of deep carbon cuts, 2.0 degrees will be exceeded during this century.”

Given the scale of the climate crisis that humanity is now confronted with, Tantoco highlighted that there are “practical steps that nations and enterprises can take, such as accelerating pursuit of RE in powering not just homes and industries, but transportation as well.”

He added that such shall be “coupled with green investing and an unequivocal rejection of fossil-based fuels, such as coal.”

The other critical steps that can be taken shall include forest cover rehabilitation and regeneration; while for communities, “resilience against extreme weather disturbances needs to be of utmost priority for local government units,” he said.

For families and individuals, Tantoco asserted that “simple but impactful lifestyle practices, such as conservation of natural resources and decreased material consumerism continues to be of big help.”

The EDC executive acknowledged though that there would already be too little that can be done to overturn the environmental mistakes of the past, but “it is up to all of us to do something to prevent them from happening again – to be a part of the solution to the greatest crisis of our time.”