LOPEZ-LED First Philippine Holdings (FPH) Corp. on Wednesday said its two subsidiaries will spearhead an environmental effort of the group’s nonenergy subsidiaries by eventually sourcing all their power needs from the so-called low-carbon suppliers.
The two subsidiaries will be Rockwell Land Corp. and First Philippine Industrial Park. They will draft roadmaps, under which all their power needs will eventually come from low-carbon energy suppliers.
The low-carbon preference will serve as a guide in future power-supply contracts to be signed by the two firms, FPH said.
“The instructions reinforce the earlier declaration of its chairman and CEO, Federico Lopez, that the FPH will not build, develop, or invest in any coal-fired power plant as part of global efforts to combat climate change,” the company said.
It based the decision on scientific advisories that identified the power-generation industry, especially carbon-intensive, coal-fired power plants, as one of the main reasons behind adverse weather patterns associated with climate change, such as floods and droughts, as well as more destructive and more frequent typhoons.
FPH unit First Gen Corp., which uses clean and renewable energy, has an installed capacity of 2,959 megawatts as of the end-2015. These power plants run on what it claimed as clean, renewable and indigenous fuel sources, such as natural gas, geothermal, hydro, wind and solar.
Lopez’s declaration, which he announced during the annual stockholders’ meeting of the company earlier this week, means coal-fired power plants will remain outside of First Gen’s portfolio of power facilities and another subsidiary, Energy Development Corp., a company that runs geothermal facilities.
“After Lopez issued his declaration, top officials of FPH and subsidiaries gathered for a meeting, and agreed to ratchet up their campaign versus climate change,” the company said.
