World beginning to act on pollution

THE Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines (EVAP) came out last week with a recommendation to the government to support the electric vehicle sector in reaction to the spate of closures of car-manufacturing plants in the country.

It called for support of Senate Bill 1382, the Electric Vehicles and Charging Stations Act of Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, which has been pending at the bicameral level for six years now. The bill mandates large industrial and commercial firms, public transport operators, and government agencies to have a minimum 5 percent electric vehicles in their fleets.

The bill may not have had much success in Congress but it anticipated a growing worldwide movement for an end to carbon pollution by phasing out gas-powered transportation and other industries and replacing them with electricity-powered ones.

Last March, 2020, the European Commission presented a proposal for all European Union nations to enact laws to make the EU the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. The proposed European Climate Law set a target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Member states were asked to develop and implement plans to achieve this goal, which is also in line with the Paris Agreement to keep world temperature increase below 2 degrees Centigrade.

Last October, President Xi Jinping of China stunned the world with his pledge in a speech before the United Nations to make China “carbon neutral” by 2060. China has become the center of the global economy, accounting for about half the global consumption of steel, copper, aluminum, and cement, and requiring tremendous energy mostly from coal. China’s leaders have now begun planning to reduce the share of polluting coal in its energy mix for its industries – from 58 percent in 2019 to less than 50 percent by 2025 – with the ultimate goal of 0 percent by 2060.

A week after President Xi’s pledge at the UN, Japan Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Japan too will become a carbon-neutral society by 2050.

Key to all these announced efforts to achieve carbon neutrality will be the development of new solar cells, carbon recycling, and digitalizing society. Now that the United States has a new president in Joseph Biden, it should soon be announcing its own plans to cut down on its carbon pollution by its industries and millions of cars.

In comparison with the carbon pollution by these highly industrialized nations, the Philippines has but a minor role in the total effort. But all efforts are important. We thus welcome the Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines’ call on the government to support the nation’s young electric vehicle sector.

As a Third World country, our state of economic development is well below that of Europe, China, and Japan, but in our plans for development, we should start considering measures that will gradually wean us from our dependence on industries that now pollute our cities, our skies, and our lives.