By Leony R. Garcia
THE Philippines has actively participated in and promoted environmental and sustainable development.
Along with other countries, the Philippines is a signatory to the 2000 Millennium Declaration, which led to the development of the time-bound Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as a global agenda for development by 2015. The Philippines, along with 188 member-states of the United Nations (UN), declared its commitment to achieve eight MDGs, namely: (1) End Extreme Poverty and Hunger; (2) Achieve Universal Primary Education; (3) Provide Gender Equality and Empower Women; (4) Reduce Child Mortality; (5) Improve Maternal Health; (6) Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and other Diseases; (7) Ensure Environmental Sustainability; and (8) Develop a Global Partnership for Development.
The MDGs focus the efforts of the world community on achieving significant, measurable improvements in people’s lives by 2015. They establish targets and yardsticks for measuring results—not just for developing countries but for the rich countries that help fund development programs and for the multilateral institutions that help countries implement them.
In the year since the declaration, the Philippines has made considerable progress in some of the goals, particularly Goals 4, 6 and 7. In August 2014 Luiza Carvalho, UN resident coordinator and United Nations Development Programme resident representative in the Philippines, said the country has presented consistent progress (toward achieving the MDGs).
Scientists believe that many of the Earth’s ecosystems are nearing critical tipping points of depletion or irreversible change, which is pushed by high population growth and economic development. By 2050, if current consumption and production patterns remain the same and with a rising population expected to reach 9.6 billion, we will need three planets to sustain our ways of living and consumption.
Greening the Philippine economy
Pursuant to the Philippine Constitution, the government came up with progressive legal mechanisms to protect the country’s resources through Republic Act (RA) 8749, or the Clean Air Act of 1999; RA 9275, or the Philippine Clean Water Act of 2004; and RA 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.
Aside from these laws, according to lawyer Lorna Kapunan through her column “Legally Speaking” at the BusinessMirror, the Philippines also has laws on forestry, land-use plan and management, and mining.
She said these landmark laws recognize the impacts of a degraded environment to the health and well-being of the people and the economy.
DENR Administrative Order (DAO) 2015-04 requires cleaner fuel by July
In compliance with RA 8749, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) issued a directive in March 2015 requiring the use of cleaner fuel by July 1.
Environment Secretary Ramon J.P. Paje said the new emission requirement would comply with Euro 4 fuel standards, instead of the current Euro 2.
The Euro 4 standard is a globally accepted European emission standard for vehicles which requires fuel to have significantly low amounts of sulfur and benzene.
According to Euro 4 standards, the emission of sulfur content both for diesel and gasoline should measure only 50 parts per million (ppm), instead of the 500 ppm for Euro 2.
Benzene in gasoline, meanwhile, would measure only 1 percent by volume, compared to 5 percent for Euro 2 fuel.
For aromatics, Euro 4 fuel would contain only 35 percent by volume, as opposed to Euro 2 fuel, which prescribes no limit.
The DAO also provides that all new vehicles to be used or introduced into the Philippine market by January 2016 shall be equipped with Euro 4 engine and compliant with Euro 4 emission standards.
The DENR-Environmental Management Bureau shall only issue certificates of conformity (COC) to Euro 4 vehicles starting January 2016.
The COC is issued to new vehicles that comply with emission standards prescribed by the DENR. It is a requirement for the initial registration of vehicles with the Land Transportation Office.
DOE issues circular on Euro 4 compliance
Meanwhile, the Department of Energy (DOE) in June 2015 has come out with a circular requiring oil companies to be ready with Euro 4-compliant fuels by January 1, 2016.
Energy Undersecretary Zenaida Monsada said the DOE would also issue a separate letter to encourage oil firms to make available Euro 4-compliant fuels earlier than the January 1, 2016, original deadline for implementation.
At present, only independent oil company Unioil has made available Euro 4-compliant fuels. Unioil launched the first Euro 4 standard diesel fuel in the Philippines in 2012, while Petron Corp. introduced Petron Blaze 100 Euro 4 nearly two years ago, which was especially formulated to meet the Euro 4 standard.
Petron is set to have its $2-billion Refinery Master Plan (RMP)-2 in full commercial operation this year.
The project is envisioned to drastically increase production of gasoline, diesel and petrochemicals at Petron’s Bataan refinery. RMP-2 will enhance the country’s supply security, since it gives more flexibility to refine crude oil from various sources. More important, Petron will be capable of locally producing fuels that meet the more stringent Euro 4 environmental standard.
“Petron appears to be ready by itself. If they have excess, they can sell to others,” Monsada said.
Vehicle assemblers ask government to postpone Euro 4 compliance
Car companies have expressed resistance to the implementation of the Euro 4 emission standards, even if the July 2015 deadline will be moved back to the original January 2016. Accordingly, more than half of their inventories, incoming orders and those yet to be produced are still not compliant with the mandatory emission-fuel standards.
Motor-vehicle organizations and even truck manufacturers have already submitted their common position to the DENR asking for longer transition time.
Truck Manufacturers Association (TMA) President Dante Santos, who is also vice president of the country’s second-largest car assembler and trader Mitsubishi Motor Philippines Corp. (MMPC), appealed to the DENR to listen to the industry and stakeholders.
While there is no issue with complying with the Euro 4 emission standards, Santos said that implementing this order without giving due time for adjustments would only create a “crisis” among industry stakeholders, travel operators and those down the line that are using buses and jeepneys, as they will not be able to adjust with the new regulation.
“Who does not want to have clean air? But we need enough transition period,” he said.
TMA has asked for a reversal of the July 2015 deadline to the original date of January, 2016 Euro 4 full implementation. But even if the deadline is reverted back to 2016, Santos said full compliance has yet to be discussed.
Between gas- and diesel-powered vehicles, Santos added that diesel-powered vehicles will have a difficult time adopting, because the local supply of diesel fuel has higher sulfur content.
“One solution is to import the diesel or change the fuel refineries in the Philippines,” he said.
Each car company must also adopt by importing new engines and possibly implement new vehicle configuration, because different engines have different specifications.
“This entails additional cost. If this happens, we will have a sudden jump in prices, which is difficult to bear. So what will happen to customers that cannot adjust, they will just stop their business,” he said.
Santos added that MMPC alone has more diesel-powered vehicles than gasoline. “But our rule is to follow, we are just asking for a transition period to fully comply,” he added.
Human health effects of air pollution
Republic Act 8749, otherwise known as the Philippine Clean Air Act, is a comprehensive air-quality management policy and program which aims to achieve and maintain healthy air for all Filipinos. Euro 4 compliance, in a sense, is giving teeth to this environmental measure.
Like many countries of the world, transportation is the largest single source of air pollution in the Philippines. Cars and trucks are found to produce air pollution throughout their life, including pollution emitted during vehicle operation, refueling, manufacturing and disposal. Additional emissions are associated with the refining and distribution of vehicle fuel.
Air pollution has both acute and chronic effects on human health, affecting a number of different systems and organs. It ranges from minor upper-respiratory irritation to chronic respiratory and heart disease, lung cancer, acute respiratory infections in children and chronic bronchitis in adults, aggravating pre-existing heart and lung disease, or asthma attacks. In addition, short- and long-term exposures have also been linked with premature mortality and reduced life expectancy.
Hazardous chemicals escape to the environment by a number of natural and/or anthropogenic activities, and may cause adverse effects on human health and the environment. Increased combustion of fossil fuels in the last century is responsible for the progressive change in the atmospheric composition. Air pollutants, such as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, ozone, heavy metals and respirable particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), differ in their chemical composition, reaction properties, emission, time of disintegration and ability to diffuse in long or short distances.
The time for cleaner air is now
In biblical times, the Lord God admonished the Israelites for not caring for the environment in the Promised Land: Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture; and to drink of clear water, that you must muddy the rest of the water with your feet?
(Ezekiel 34:18).
They were just thousands of them then compared to the present world’s billion human inhabitants.
The road to change is always bumpy and controversial. But we all want healthier environment and cleaner air. Without a healthy planet, there isn’t a healthy anything. Absolutely, there is no business to be done on a dead planet simply because every single life would be terminated on a dead planet!
Image credits: Wikipedia