Policy Brief & Papers
NATURAL GAS DIRTY SECRET: INSIGHTS ON THE PHILIPPINE NATURAL GAS DEVELOPMENT ACT
The environmental and health impact of dirty, costly, and deadly fuel will persist as long as the country further chains itself to the faulty “transition fuel” narrative. The hype surrounding LNG as a “bridge fuel” is based on the assumption that it is cleaner than coal and will bolster energy security. This is nothing but a big lie perpetuated by the fossil fuel industry and the government to maintain fossil fuel dependence.
In the country, natural gas currently accounts for 13.7% of the total installed power generation capacity, ranking as the second-highest contributor after coal. Despite being highly vulnerable to disasters, the country relies significantly on fossil fuels, which account for 67.7% of its energy needs. Although there is considerable potential for solar and wind energy, renewable sources only represent 32.3% of the installed power generation. Eleven percent comes from large hydroelectric plants, which also cause habitat destruction, ecosystem disruption, and community displacement.
A DIRTY SCHEME TO TRAP THE FILIPINO INTO DEADLY, DIRTY, AND COSTLY ENERGY.
July 2025
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Santa Rita Combined-Cycle Natural Gas-Fired Power Plant
The electricity consumer stands at a disadvantage as the government continues to lean backward and provide big energy corporations with the golden opportunity to earn billions of profits from a risk-free business, whose regulation is nothing but lenient. A privatized energy sector has resulted in the dominance of key conglomerates, creating an oligopolistic power generation market characterized by cross-ownership and a vertically integrated business model that relies heavily on deadly, dirty, and costly fossil fuels.
The enactment of the Philippine Natural Gas Industry Development Act or Republic Act (RA) No. 12120 aims to promote Philippines as Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) trading and transshipment hub in the Asia-Pacific region, the obstinate technology-neutral stance of the Department of Energy (DOE) and the importation of fossil gas with cost recovery subsidies permitted by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), further trap Filipino in an expensive and environmentally damaging energy source. These existing mechanisms, along with the promotion of fossil gas as a transition fuel, crowd out the investment and development of renewable energy (RE) for an extended period.
ADB-ETM: MORE HARM THAN GOOD
6 Non-Negotiables for a True Energy Transition
May 2025
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is promoting itself as a leader of bold actions for accelerating the coal transition to clean energy when it launched the Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM) in 2021. With the recognition of the worsening threat of the climate crisis in Asia and the Pacific, cutting emissions from the coal-fired power plants, as the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, is the path the region must take to meet climate targets. However, having this mechanism in place will not absolve the Bank’s history as a fossil fuel enabler. For an energy transition to be successful, ADB should put climate justice at the center of its framework for climate finance and address serious concerns stemming from its past and ongoing investments in dirty projects in Asia.
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ADB’s energy legacy in the Philippines played a critical role as the key architect of major coal-fired power plants in the country by supporting the Calaca and Masinloc plants back in the 90s. It also left an indelible mark on enabling the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), the privatization of the power sector through restructuring and dividing the industry into four sectors: generation, transmission, distribution, and supply. Through technical assistance and policy-based lending schemes, ADB promoted larger private sector involvement in the power industry to deliver an affordable, efficient, accessible, and sustainable power supply.