RP urged to promote renewable energy

MANILA, Philippines – The Ecological Society of the Philippines (ESP) is urging the government to promote the use of renewable energy to help abate the effects of climate change.

“We are now experiencing the onslaught of global warming,” said ESP president Antonio M. Claparols.“On thing we can do is to tap renewable sources of energy and stop our dependency to oil, coal and other sources of energy that harm the environment.”

According to Claparols, the United States and the European Union are gearing towards the use of clean energy and that at least 73 countries, at the end of 2008, have renewable energy policy targets.

Among the most popular and effective source of renewable energy are social wind power.

“Solar photovoltaic power continued to be the fastest growing power generation technology in the world. In fact, India emerged as a major producer of solar photovoltaics in 2008,” Claparols said. “In China, the total wind power capacity doubled in 2008.”

“If countries, more developed than us, are using solar and wind power, I see no reason why we can’t tap these sources of energy.” Claparols added.

Renewable energy is derived from natural processes that are replenished constantly such as sunlight wind, tides, rain and geothermal energy.

“We are a country so rich in renewable sources of energy. We should take advantage of this clean and natural resource” he said.