Euro chamber calls for carrot and stick to encourage more power conservation

THE EUROPEAN Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) is calling for a law that will provide both incentives and penalties to promote energy conservation.

“We need an energy conservation law. We should work with carrot and stick. We would offer incentives to be more energy efficient andn if you don’t do it, we hit you. Penalty,” ECCP Executive Vice-President Henry J. Schumacher said during the ECCP-Shell New Energy Future Forum yesterday.

“What’s happening is that building owners have no interest to invest in energy efficiency. So what we want to have is a carrot and stick.”

He said the chamber can help by “bench-marking against conservation laws in other countries. We are still putting a group of experts together and talk to the Department of Energy (DoE) to make it work.”

House Committee on Energy chairman Henedina R. Abad of Batanes could not be reached for a comment.

But DoE undersecretary Ramon V. Oca told reporters at the sidelines of the event that an energy conservation law is “a very good idea.” “There’s a lot of useless power if we’re not efficient and energy costs double or triple,” he said.

ECCP launched last July a program that helps member firms audit their energy use.

Peter Lee U, dean of the University of Asia and the Pacific School of Economics, said in his speech during the event that while technologies geared to saving energy may be costly at the outset, there will be long-term gains. “There are a lot of desirable effects we want from laws like lower prices and more supply, but we may not be able to have all of it together so we have to be ready for that. We also need to know the long term. An example is renewable energy, it’s more expensive to start up, but the marginal cost in the long term is lower,” he said. — ENJD, Businessworld