A BELATED happy Earth Day to all!
I greet you in hopes that your celebration of it this year was as meaningful as ever, despite many of us having had to spend the day in the confines of our homes. For us at the Diocese of San Carlos, it most certainly was as we held a digital human chain calling for the care of our Common Home and solidarity in the fight against Covid-19. It was also a remembering of the unity that Negrosanons showed exactly a year ago, when about 7,000 of our people joined hands in a human chain from Manapla in Negros Occidental all the way to La Libertad in Negros Oriental to protest the 300 MW coal-fired power plant project being proposed by San Miguel Corporation in our beautiful city of San Carlos.
That human chain stretched to around 229 kilometers, but the resistance across the country against coal is much wider. The use of coal, the dirtiest of all fossil fuels, makes worse the already dire climate situation, and causes many harms upon people and the environment be it during its extraction, transport, or burning for power generation. Sadly, coal is also the fuel in which our country currently depends on the most for our electricity needs, and many are still looking to add to its existing capacity.
I hope proponents of coal projects, authorities, and all who enable coal expansion will soon realize that it is never worth sacrificing human welfare and nature to create electricity, not when many other clean resources are available to us. I'd like to call attention to one sector in particular whose leadership is crucial in ending coal in the Philippines and steering the transition to clean energy from renewables. A report published in late 2019 showed that in just three years, Philippine banks provided about P320 billion worth of financial services to local coal developers. Over half of this amount is attributed to just two banks - BDO and BPI, which are also the country's largest and most popular banks.
Just imagine how much renewable energy could advance if that money was channeled into its development instead. Wouldn't that be amazing to see? Sadly, the banks in whom we placed our trust and hard-earned money have yet to commit to securing a cleaner future for us by ending their coal investments.
Right after Earth Day, the Bank of the Philippine Islands held its annual stockholders meeting virtually. The decision to push through with it amid the crisis even as other banks were postponing is quite intriguing, but I hoped that BPI will make the most of it and seize the chance to do its part for the planet by declaring policies to reduce coal exposure. Many of the bank's depositors, workers, and other stakeholders had called for this leading up to the meeting. For BPI, it was a golden opportunity to be the first Philippine bank to meaningfully show solidarity with the call of Pope Francis to end the mistreatment of our planet and end coal funding once and for all; instead, the bank's executives only talked about adding investments to its green portfolio. It is good to have more funding for renewable energy development, but without divestment from destructive coal, BPI's green efforts are overshadowed by the continued suffering of coal-affected communities and the environment.
But it is not too late for BPI, BDO, and all other local banks funding coal to lead the way out of coal dependence. I only hope that they realize this the soonest, as the time we have left to create radical changes to address the climate emergency is quickly ticking away.
The coronavirus crisis is teaching us that all decisions made in our country's development must prioritize people and the environment first. Even after Earth Day, let us maintain the solidarity we showed and work together to ensure this.
