'Phl implementing clean development mechanism projects'

SINGAPORE – The Philippines is one of the few countries in the world that have successfully implemented clean development mechanism (CDM) projects in the past several years, an official of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said.

Xuedu Lu, advisor to the Office of the Director General, Regional and Sustainable Development Department of ADB, said the Philippines is also one of the top 10 countries in the world with the highest number of approved CDM projects.

Lu said that based on the ADB’s latest data, the Philippines has a total of 57 CDM projects.

As of October 2001, he said there are a total of 3,556 CDM projects worldwide.

“Most of the projects in the Philippines are quite small projects… many of those are hydropower for farmlands,” Lu told The STAR on the sidelines of the recently concluded Carbon Forum Asia (CFA) 2011 here.

“The implementation is good but just small scale. It doesn’t have to be large scale, what is important is the sustainability of the projects,” he added.

Lu cited the use of compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) in the country instead of the incandescent bulb as part of the government’s efforts to encourage energy efficiency practices.

CFA is jointly organized by trade fair company Koelnmesse and the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA).

CDM was established under Article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and is designed to provide an incentive for developed countries to transfer greenhouse emission reduction technologies into developing countries.

Lu said the Philippines has vast natural resources that can be harnessed as renewable sources of energy. Among these, wind, hydro, and biomass are viewed as having the most potential for developing into CDM projects.