The clock is ticking for the Philippines to transition to a clean energy future. The Department of Energy, through the National Renewable Energy Program 2020-2040, aspires to increase the share of renewable energy in the country’s power generation mix to 35 percent by 2030 and 50 percent by...
One out of three households in the country, amounting to approximately 10 million households nationwide, now own at least one bicycle, according to the latest survey released by the Social Weather Stations (SWS). A significant increase from the past two years, with 7.3 million cyclists recorded in...
As the extraction and processing of natural resources cause half of global emissions and over 90 percent of biodiversity loss according to the United Nations, shifting to a circular economy is essential to achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement in limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius...
What should I do now? I am writing this piece while Typhoon Falcon is ravaging the Philippines just days after Typhoon Egay wreaked havoc in the country. Based on the most recent estimates, these back-to-back typhoons brought about P1.94 billion in damages to agriculture and around P7 billion to...
Plastic pollution is causing irreparable damage to ecosystems, affecting human health, and contributing to the climate crisis. However, due to how ingrained plastics, especially single-use plastics, are into our economic activities, phasing them out will be an arduous challenge. This is evident as...
In 2013, when Typhoon Yolanda hit the Philippines, it made its first landfall in a small island called Sulu-an, a few kilometers off the coast of Guiuan, Eastern Samar. While most people know of Yolanda’s destruction in Tacloban and other major cities in the Visayas, most Filipinos have not heard...
Typhoon Frank, which struck our municipality in Iloilo in 2008, still lives vividly in my mind. I remember how the night before the flood, my sisters and I, one of whom is a differently abled person, were nonchalant about what was happening outside. The blackout did not bother us because that meant...
Last month, we received another wake-up call from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change through its latest assessment report. The report highlighted that climate change is undoubtedly caused by human activity, and its impacts are already happening and will become more severe with every...
“ Noong bata pa ako …” might be among the most common phrases we hear from our elders. They’d paint a wistful picture of a simpler world with fertile land, fresh air, clean water, and neighbors looking after each other. This is not the Earth of today's children. This International Youth...
We are living in unchartered territory. On top of the global pandemic and its ensuing economic fallout, the environmental and climate crises are both deepening across the world. Now more than ever, it is becoming clearer that the impacts of climate change are no longer just felt in the Global...
