PE2 highlights critical role of energy efficiency in boosting climate security
MAKATI CITY, 14 March 2025 –Philippine Energy Efficiency Alliance (PE2) president Alexander Ablaza joined a panel of experts today during a climate security session of “PROTECT 2025: Doing Business Amidst New Threats,” an international conference on security and safety held earlier today at the New World Makati Hotel.
Ablaza reported that in COP28 over 200 governments recognized the imperative to limit global warming within the 1.5-degree target by curbing energy-related emissions toward net zero by 2050, and that one of the short-term goals to help meet this 2050 objective was the doubling of global energy efficiency (EE) improvements by 2030. He explained further that EE is a critical component of the Net Zero Energy scenario projected by the International Energy Agency (IEA).
“Global energy markets should gravitate toward planning energy efficiency as a primary energy resource – an indigenous fuel to be dispatched with priority,” he declared.
Responding to the global call to double the rate of energy intensity reduction by 2030 can be done through three key EE actions. One of them is improving technical efficiency in new building construction, energy-efficient renovations of existing building stock, and replacing appliances, industrial processes and vehicles with more efficient technologies,” Ablaza said. “Electrifying fossil-fed energy uses such as transport vehicles and clean cooking, as well as avoiding demand through permanent changes in energy-use behavior will also deliver their respective emission reductions toward the 2030 target.”
He echoed the IEA pronouncement that, “Doubling efficiency progress could cut energy bills by a third and make up 50% of emissions reductions by 2030.”
He also said that energy efficiency needs a major paradigm shift. With the 2019 passage of RA 11285 or the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act, new modalities of public and private sector energy efficiency capital flows will be enabled. Ablaza said, “PE2 is more optimistic that the bulk of the PHP 12 trillion EE investment gap through 2040 can be bridged through these new modalities, which includes energy service company (ESCO) performance contracting.”
The PE2 president also shared estimates that up to PHP 252 billion of private sector investments can be made in public sector EE projects through three new procurement modalities, namely, ESCO performance contracting under the New Government Procurement Act (NGPA), public-private partnership (PPP) transactions under the PPP Code, and through joint venture agreements with government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) under existing NEDA (now called DEPDev) guidelines.
PROTECT 2025 brings to realization that overcoming all threats to security must be a commonly-shared task between the government and the private sector. Over the years, the PROTECT conference series had anticipated the security threats year to year - from - terrorism – to pandemics - to global financial crisis - to natural disasters - to cyber attacks, to disruptive technologies.
PROTECT conference brought together global and local analysts, business leaders, industry experts and government officials tasked to safeguard our national security in an atmosphere of free-willing focused discussions by diving deep into the security challenges affecting doing business today where the impact on business practices from resources, to supply chain, to logistics, to energy sources, to customer behavior and demographics.
The annual conference is organized by Leverage International.
