Clean Air Month Activities - The Philippines

The Philippines celebrates Clean Air Month as part of the ongoing Clean Air 10 Celebrations, which was hold in June. More than 10 activities have been organized in October and November 2009 to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Clean Air Act, which was signed into law on June 23, 1999, The aim of these activities is to emphasize the successful clean air actions taken in specific cities and to generalize some actions for governmental agencies, stakeholders and educational institutions to follow in the coming years.

A series of workshops and events are planned on air quality management and sustainable transport together with Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Transport and Communication (DOTC), and key international partners including Asian Development Bank, Asian Clean Fuels Association (ACFA), German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), and the Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles of the UN (PCFV).

During my positing period, I attended some of these events, namely Philippines National Workshop: Clean Air for Smaller Cities in the ASEAN Region Project, Forum on Greening the Transport Sector, National Workshop on Clean Fuels and Vehicles, Rondtable on Biofuels: Trends and Updates, Roundtable Forum on Clean Air 10 Celebrations. Through participating these activities, I was able to realize the difficulties of implementing the air quality management in the Philippine and the successful stories in improving air quality for the past 10 years. A brief description of each activity is listed as below. For further information about the clean air month activities, please visit http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/propertyvalue-13724.html

The first event was a workshop “Clean Air for Smaller Cities in the ASEAN Region Project Philippines National Workshop” on October 22, 2009 in The A. Venue Hotel Suites, Manila. The aims of this workshop are to share the western countries experiences in clean air projects and provide a platform for small cities to express their difficulties and needs in implementing clean air projects. On that day, more than 30 Philippine local government units participated in the workshop and two of them (Iloilo city and Cagayan de Oro City) shared their existing clean air programs to other cities. In addition, some experts from GTZ shared some successful clean air stories and addressed the elements of clean air plan to the Philippine government agencies.

On November 12, more than 200 audiences from LGUs, city planners, government officials, transport sector, private sector and academe and civil society attended a forum named “Forum Greening the Transport Sector” in Heritage Hotel, Manila. This forum is organized by DOTC and DENR, together with CAI-Asia, UNCRD, PCA, LCP, IGES, and UP-NCTS. On that day, the National Environmentally Sustainable Transport (EST) Strategy and Action Plan of the Philippines to various stakeholders was presented and discussed. This EST strategy and action plan contribute towards mainstreaming such policies and contribute to our country’s efforts to achieve better urban transport systems that contribute to reducing air pollution, emissions of CO2, and dependence on fossil fuel. The additional information can be found at http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/article-73618.html

National Workshop on Clean Fuels and Vehicles was held on November 16 in Astoria Plaza Hotel, Manila. Around 100 participants attended the workshop. The objective of the workshop is to develop an action plan for cleaner fuels and vehicles in the Philippines with the aim of adopting Euro IV standards or specific parameters of Euro IV standards. Department of Energy of Philippines presented the overview of Philippine Fuel quality standard and Pollution Control Department of Thailand shared the experience in moving towards cleaner fuels and vehicles, followed by Hart Energy described the refinery capacity and supply in Asia of Euro IV or low-sulfur fuels and Philipinas Shell pointed out the impacts on refineries based on the relationship between fuel quality and vehicle emissions and moving to cleaner fuels. The additional information can be found at http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/article-73652.html

A roundtable on biofuels was held just a day after the National Workshop on Clean Fuels and Vehicles in Astoria Plaza Hotel, Manila. The objective is to provide Philippine stakeholders with updates on (a) the Philippine biofuels initiatives and (b) global and regional updates on biofuel use and how other countries are addressing vehicle performance and maintenance issues related to biofuel use. The key speakers included Department of Energy (DOE) and Asian Clean Fuels Association (ACFA). The overview of Philippine Biofuel situation and its initiatives was presented and the update on biofuel use and proposed solutions to address related vehicle performance and maintenance issues was also addressed.

Roundtable Forum on Clean Air 10 Celebrations, organized by DENR, PCA, ECAP, CAI-Asia and DILG, was held on November 18 in Sulo Hotel, Manila. More than hundred participants attended this forum. During this forum, I was able to learn the stories of “model cases” on how the various sectors of the Philippines achieved some modest gains in working for clean air. In addition, this forum presented the process with visions on what they want to achieve together in the next years and provided discussion spaces on how they could get there, through the COMMITMENT TO ACTION of the various sectors – working together to achieve their end goal of ensuring a healthy and sustainable environment for all.