‘Green auditor’ to check green projects if real or fake

Going green may be all the rage, but exactly how green are those projects?

The Climate Change Commission is positioning itself as the Philippines’ “green auditor” that will evaluate the environmental projects being rolled out every year in terms of how these are helping save natural resources or preserve energy.

The commission will take on this role in the absence of a government body specifically assigned to ensure that green projects on which public funds are being spent are truly achieving their purpose, Vice Chair Mary Ann Lucille Sering said at a recent meeting with Inquirer editors and reporters.

“There’s nobody doing monitoring and evaluation in terms of the green projects. The COA (Commission on Audit) is more into numbers and specific guidelines you have to follow,” she said.

Sering said the commission also intended to examine the “environment-friendly” claims made by proponents from the private sector.

“We need to check if they’re telling the truth that their particular project or building is green. It might be just some marketing ploy,” she said.

Examples

There are certain clear issues that the commission will look at in conducting green audits.

For example, the government is trying to raise seedlings but there is no vulnerability assessment on whether these seedlings will survive if the temperature increases, Sering said.

She also recalled receiving reports on a Palawan mayor who claimed that when the government embarked on a massive reforestation project, his constituents were so concerned about not getting a piece of the pie that they started cutting down greenery in an area so they could have a place to plant seedlings.

“In short, it was a perverse incentive,” she noted.

The commission has likewise learned that as a result of the Department of Energy program where incandescent bulbs are being replaced with the more energy-efficient compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), middle-class consumers are buying incandescent lamps to get free CFLs.

Thus, the sales of incandescent lamps even increased, Sering said.

She explained that the incandescent lamps were priced at about P10 and consumers were able to replace these for free with CFLs worth about P100. And the project was funded by a loan, she said.

“[When] the incandescents are busted, the CFLs are busted, what’s left behind is the loan. It did not create any local industry, but the supplier probably earned some,” Sering said.

“These are the kinds of policy support that look good initially but do not provide additional value in terms of local jobs,” she said.

Partnerships

Sering said that because the modestly staffed commission had no regional offices, it would plan to team up with civil society organizations.

She said the partnership would also allow the commission to be more transparent and more credible in terms of auditing.

The commission is also teaming up with the private sector to push energy conservation projects. It has partnered with transport company Victory Liner for research on the development of locally manufactured electric buses, Sering said. –Leila B. Salaverria, Philippine Daily Inquirer