The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) is urging  Congress to thoroughly review the carbon tax  and carbon trading system guidelines indicated in the proposed Low Carbon Bill, to ensure its fair implementation on regulating carbon emissions of businesses.

The PCCI released a Position Paper to the Technical Working Group by the House Committee on Climate Change, stating that the Congress should "work with industry stakeholders to study, simulate, and conduct impact tests with economic modeling and cost-benefit analysis to ensure that the bill, once enacted into law, will be fairly implemented and will not unduly increase cost for business and consumers."

“We need an exhaustive and comprehensive discussion and analysis to determine the most appropriate system that will benefit us. We do recognize the urgency of passing the bill on Low Carbon Economy as our country is the biggest victim of climate change as we experience severe typhoons that have devastated our economy. On the other hand, we need to be extra careful that our proposed solution will not bring greater harm to our country," said PCCI President Enunina Mangio.

House Bill (HB) 7705 aims to enforce annual reduction targets and caps on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on businesses that “materially contribute to GHC emissions as determined by government.”

Covered by this criteria are businesses in the energy, transportation, building construction and operations, along with companies in the cement, steel, glass manufacturing sectors.

Included are also "refrigerant producers and users, enterprises contributing significant biological and effluent waste emissions and enterprises with agricultural value chains with potential impact to deforestation and/or fugitive emissions from fertilizer use, methane emissions from biomass wastes, and enteric fermentation," said the group.

Clarification is needed on how to fairly apply the policy for transport and livestock agriculture industries, which have been identified as major GHG emissions contributors.

“There should be a comprehensive collected data on the actual cross-industry sector to avoid (1) unfair competition among key players within an industry sector, (2) increase in inflation rates, (3) additional "pass-on costs" to consumers associated with cap-and-trade implementation, (4) generating multiple forms of ‘stranded costs’ and, (5) increasing production costs for industries,” said PCCI’s Environment and Climate Change Committee Director Edgardo G. Lacson.

PCCI Chairman and Director for Energy and Power George Barcelon explained that legislations have already been enacted to ensure that the carbon emissions of firms in the energy-power sector are regulated such as the moratorium on new coal-fired power plants and the adoption of the Renewable Energy Act, the Energy Efficiency Act and the Biofuels Act.

“Our country has gaps in the technology, expertise, experience, framework, and infrastructure to implement either carbon tax or carbon trading for a Low Carbon Economy. These components will have to be established and we may also adapt, if applicable, global best practices,” he added.