Two recent studies published in the prestigious science journal Nature quantified what environmentalists as early as the industrial revolution have warned us about: that human activity is damaging the environment, and that if we don’t put an end to it, our environment could seriously degrade to the point of irreversible damage.

The first study, titled “Greenhouse gas emission targets for limiting global warming to 2°C” is a three-year research by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. It has calculated that to prevent the climate from warming up by 2 degrees Celsius or more in 2050—a goal set by 109 countries that signed the Kyoto Convention in Climate Change—we can only emit less than 1 trillion tons of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere between 2000 and 2050.

The catch is we’ve already spewed a third of that amount into the atmosphere in just nine years, and if we keep this pace, the world will most likely have a temperature 2 degrees Celsius higher than it is now by 2020, in about 10 years.

A companion study, “Warming caused by cumulative carbon emissions toward the trillionth ton,” pointed out the urgency of implementing measures to cut carbon-dioxide emissions. If the world does not start making substantial cuts on carbon dioxide before 2020, meeting the less than 2-degrees-Celsius target in 2050 would involve drastic measures entailing gigantic economic and political costs that will make the goal impossible to achieve.

While public policies in many countries are becoming more aggressive in addressing climate change, the task proves increasingly harder to accomplish. A recent report by the US Energy Information Administration estimates that between now and 2030, energy consumption in the world is expected to rise by 44 percent, mostly caused by economic recovery and expansion in rapidly developing countries, such as the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China).

And there’s still more than enough supply to meet this increasing demand, at least for now. According to the International Energy Agency, oil reserves currently amount to 1.3 trillion barrels—enough to meet global consumption for the next four decades. This number does not include oil from unconventional sources, said to amount to 6.5 trillion barrels, and recoverable reserves, which are estimated at 3.5 trillion barrels.

Judging from these data, market forces of demand and supply will most probably allow massive fossil-fuel consumption. Developing economies need cheap fuel, while going green entails a necessary change in technology and a disruption in our current way of life. This means that if we are to maintain carbon emissions within the 2050 goal, Adam Smith’s invisible hand needs much motivation from the government through subsidies, policies and regulatory frameworks that lessen the amount of carbon emitted into the atmosphere.

This is precisely what President Obama is doing with the automobile industry in the United States. He has recently proposed new, stricter national fuel-emission standards. This policy will encourage automobile companies to create car models that emit less carbon dioxide, because to meet the new standards, cars would have to get 5-percent better fuel efficiency every year until 2016.

The Commission on Science Technology and Engineering, which I chair, hopes to recommend similar efforts by hosting the International Renewable Energy Convention (IREC) this September. The IREC will leverage opportunities for renewable-energy technology in the Philippines and help create a domestic clean-energy sector that will generate green jobs for Filipinos. It will complement and jump-start the implementation of the Renewable Energy Act, which we have already passed, the implementing rules of which are now in place. Through the IREC and other future initiatives, we hope to build a strong renewable-energy sector in the country, one which will prevent environmental degradation and promote sustainable development.

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