Bongbong Marcos seeks business support for renewable energy

Two girls gather pebbles along the shore with the 20 units of 70-meter high wind turbines of the Bangui Wind Farm in the background. Turbines are arranged on a single row stretching along a nine-kilometer shoreline of Bangui Bay in Ilocos Norte. FILE PHOTO

CEBU CITY — President Bongbong Marcos Jr. has sought the help of the business sector in the plan to push forward with the use of renewable energy.

“We have identified the use of renewable energy as the top of our climate agenda and we need all the support of the business sector to see this through fruition,” he told delegates of the 3rd Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Business Advisory Council (ABAC III) Meeting on Friday, July 28, in this city.

Marcos said shared investment would alleviate the financing burden of governments, while the expertise of businesses in areas such as planning, operations and execution, and ensuring returns could be mainstreamed in the sustainability projects of the government.

“There are benefits to utilizing data and models that come only from business activities,” he said.

He cited as example designing the transition of the transportation sector through the use of sustainable and clean fuels, building of green corridors, and modernizing public transportation.

He said they had to analyze the fleet capacity and travel time, fuel consumption, and other data to enable them to make informed decisions on projects.

“To extend this further, data templates, indicators, and baselines across our economies have to be standardized so as to facilitate data collection and exchange which will, in turn, strengthen the technical cooperation within Apec,” said Marcos.

But he stressed the need for cooperation as well as the leadership of the business sector in setting up standards on responsible business conduct that would encourage sustainable practices while balancing rapid growth.

Marcos was guest speaker in the opening of the three-day ABAC III Meeting at the NUSTAR Convention Center in Cebu City on July 28.

Trade and Industry Secretary Alfredo Pascual and Special Assistant to the President, Antonio Lagdameo, accompanied him.

The Philippines was selected as the host for the third leg of the ABAC this year, with more than 200 delegates from Apec’s 21 member-economies attending the three-day event in Cebu City.

For its Cebu leg, organizers decided to highlight the roles of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), artificial intelligence (AI) and environment, social, and governance (ESG) investing, among others.

Aboitiz Equity Ventures President and CEO Sabin Aboitiz, who is the ABAC member for the Philippines, said their goal was to give Asia a bigger voice.

“Every country has to transition differently right in their sustainability program. So we want to make sure that Asia’s voice is as loud as anybody else’s voice. Basically, that’s the short and sweet of what we’re doing,” he told reporters on the sideline of the ABAC Meeting.

So far, he added, there had been a lot of interest among the investors in the Philippines.

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