Duterte signs energy efficiency and conservation law

Photo from the Facebook page of the NGCP

MANILA, Philippines – President Rodrigo Duterte has signed the Energy Efficiency and Conservation law, which would institutionalize energy conservation in the country.

Duterte signed the law on April 12 but was released only to the media on Tuesday.

The new law would “institutionalize energy efficiency and conservation as a national way of life geared towards the efficient and judicious utilization of energy by formulating, developing, and implementing energy efficiency and conservation plans and programs to secure sufficiency and stability of energy supply in the country.”

The law also encouraged “the development and utilization of efficient renewable energy technologies and systems to ensure optimal use and sustainability of the country’s energy resources.”

The said the law would “establish a framework for introducing and institutionalizing fundamental policies on energy efficiency and conversation.”

An Inter-Agency Energy Efficiency and Conservation Committee will be created “to evaluate and approve government energy efficiency projects.”

The committee would be composed of the energy, budget, finance, trade, transportation, science and technology, interior, and public works and highways secretaries, and the director general of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

Duterte said funds for the implementation of the new law should be taken from the current appropriations of the Department of Energy (DOE).

The President said the DOE, in consultation with government agencies, local government units, commercial, industrial, and transport sectors, and other relevant stakeholders would promulgate the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the law. /ac