Clean energy solutions leader First Gen Corporation will continue its green technology investments to help the Philippine economy toward its decarbonization track in sync with the world in mitigating climate change risks.

“Our role here is to sort of like help the Philippine economy achieve a lower carbon intensity per kilowatt-hour -- which is why we keep bringing many of these renewable sources and low carbon sources, for example, natural gas into the grid to sort of help lower that carbon intensity per kWh,” First Gen Chairman and CEO Federico R. Lopez said.

From being the lone voice with intensified call on promoting planetary health 6-7 years ago, Lopez is delighted that there is already a tsunami of movements and capital injection play into the decarbonization route of energy systems as well as in the entire economic value chain, not just in the country but all over the world.

“It’s nice to see that ever since then also, there are many others that are going in that same direction, not so much because of us but because of the forces around the world that are pushing us to do something about this…you can see it already even with the banks; all of the investors saying ‘no more coal’; even engineering advisors saying they don’t even want to have anything to do with it, and the insurance companies saying the same thing,” he stressed.

He qualified though that the "to-do list" for corporates as well as governments when it comes to abating catastrophic impacts of the climate emergency would still be long and it will take many, many more years to accomplish – as the world is still at phase 1 at reducing carbon emissions.

He said that bigger tasks are still needed at phase 2 on elimination of emissions which are targeted to be concretized via the "net zero pledges" of institutions until mid-century. The phase 3 calls for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, a challenge to be pursued by the world around 2050 and beyond.

“The journey to net zero will involve three phases that need to be executed within a limited timeframe. More importantly, we must keep in mind that the overriding goal is to “solve the climate emergency”, by mitigating and reversing emissions as well as adapting to its impacts that are already here and intensifying,” Lopez emphasized.

He added “if we don’t get it right, the exponential deterioration of global climate systems and the environment will make it impossible to solve other problems like poverty, inequality, disease, food production, freshwater scarcity, mass migration, social displacement, mass extinction of species, and biodiversity loss, among others. All of this we will feel during our lifetimes and they’re undeniably accelerating as we can see in news reports every single day now. “

As a pioneer in the decarbonization pathway of energy systems, the First Gen chairman noted that biggest advantage was “having done it early is something that is good because you don’t get saddled with legacy investments or legacy costs that all of a sudden is stranded, that’s why I think, we’re sort of quite encouraged with the way we’ve shaped the portfolio – including the purchase of Casecnan, because assets like that are very, very hard to replicate. And they’re all in tune with where the world is headed with regards to decarbonized energy system.”

On the three-phased solution to the global climate emergency, Lopez pointed out even if the total carbon emissions of the Philippines is just a fraction of 1.0-percent, “the point here that we’re saying is this: the whole world is moving in that direction; and if the Philippines want to continue to be a part of the global supply chain, you have to be able to decarbonize your grid -- because if not, you’ll get left behind, you’ll get saddled with investments that are stranded.”

For instance, he cited that many of the multinational firm-locators at the Lopez-led First Philippine Industrial Park (FPIP) in Santo Tomas, Batangas – the likes of Dyson, Murata and Shimano - most if not all of these foreign companies are already asking for green solutions, apart from competitive energy prices, to be offered by the ecozone hosting their operations.

Lopez further stated that even sub-contractor companies, like MinebeaMitsumi which has been supplying precision components to multinational technology company Apple and is also a locator at FPIP, has been seeking for clean tech solutions that will support its net zero aspirations.

“These sub-contractors for a lot of those big companies like Apple and the likes of Google and the rest, they have net zero pledges already – and very, very early as they’re going for scope 3 on reducing emissions, they’re forcing a lot of their subcontractors to already lower their carbon emissions – probably even zero emissions,” he expounded.

Taking cue from that, Lopez highlighted that “if you want to be able to produce for many of these companies, you’ve got to be able to lower your carbon intensity per kilowatt-hour, so that’s what we’re also doing, we’ve sort of shepherding the transition of our grid into a decarbonized system.”