Puerto Princesa first 'carbon-neutral' city in SE Asia

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY ,Philippines  – This Palawan city is the first city in the entire country and in the whole Southeast Asia to be declared “carbon-neutral” using the international guidelines set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

This feat was disclosed by Fr. Jose Villarin, president of Ateneo de Manila University and a member of the IPCC, who worked in tandem with the SEED Institute and Manila Observatory that conducted the first complete greenhouse gas inventory of this city.

Puerto Princesa, according to Villarin, is now classified as “carbon-neutral” and “carbon-negative,” too, because it removes more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it creates.

Carbon-neutral is defined as the state of net zero carbon emissions where the amount of carbon released is equal to the amount sequestered.

Carbon-negative describes any activity that removes more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than one is responsible for creating.

In the case of Puerto Princesa, its net emissions of carbon dioxide are 1,456 kilotons (kt) while its removal is at 1,662 kt of carbon dioxide – technically, carbon-negative because it sequesters more carbon dioxide than it emits.

Greenhouse gas emissions in this city come from basically two sectors: electricity generation, which accounts for 52 percent, and road transportation, 30 percent. No emissions were registered from industrial processes in the city’s atmosphere.

Almost 99 percent of removal of greenhouse gases reportedly comes from forestlands and croplands. The city has a forest cover of 64.99 percent.

Greenhouse gas emissions mostly in the form of carbon dioxide come from transportation, production of electricity, industrial and agricultural processes, and even human-generated activities. Other greenhouse gases are methane, nitrous oxide, and fluorinated gases.