A whopping scale of capital mobilization that will reach as much as $500 billion (roughly P27.5 trillion) will have to be concretized so the country’s energy systems will be substantially decarbonized, according to the Department of Energy.

As cited by the energy department, “the Philippines is estimated to require around $500 billion in investment from 2024 to 2050 to achieve a successful clean energy transition.”

The low carbon pathway of the country has been presented by Energy Secretary Raphael P.M. Lotilla before the Coalition for Emerging Market Infrastructure Investment (CEMII), which is underpinned by the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Prosperity (IP3).

The energy chief highlighted that the Philippines has been chosen as a "focus market" for infrastructure buildout within the core of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) – and one key anchor of that will be deployment of green energy technologies.

“This significant move was announced by recognizing the Philippines as an ideal market for this transformative initiative given the country’s rapid growth in energy demand and ambitious renewables targets,” the DOE stressed.

By far, the Philippines has a clear energy roadmap on its pivot to clean energy investments onward to 2050, but capital flow is among the major hurdles that has to be squarely addressed so the targeted investments would not end up sputtering.

To date, most sponsor-firms in the renewable energy (RE) sector are emphasizing that the taps for green energy finance are not yet fully turned on -- and that is a risk that investors would still consider as a difficult sphere to navigate.

Specifically with emerging RE technologies, it is very apparent that project financing is still far from hitting a slam dunk if reckoned from the conventional financial calculus of project developments.

Amid the hurdles, Lotilla indicated the DOE’s strong leaning toward clean energy investments; “particularly in the transition towards a more sustainable, clean and resilient energy sector.”

The energy chief is partly anchoring his hope on collaborative partnerships that the Philippines has been pursuing – including the new CEMII initiative which is convened by the IP3 and co-chaired by the Global Infrastructure Partners and KKR; as well as other members like the Allied Climate Partners, BlackRock, Brookfield, GIC, The Rockefeller Foundation and Temasek.

Lotilla assured that the country will be “working closely with the Coalition to realize our shared vision of a clean energy future for the Philippines and the broader Indo-Pacific region.”

The CEMII, in particular, had unveiled a new strategy that pivots on advancing “innovative, action-oriented approaches that enable capital to be deployed quickly and at a scale.”

The goal of the DOE, Lotilla conveyed, is “to collaborate with the coalition to identify mutual areas of interest and develop a joint roadmap to accelerate investment in clean energy infrastructure.”