Posted on February, 04 2005

Together with a thousand protestors from Filipino communities and local environment groups, WWF has called on participants of the Clean Fossil Energy seminar of APEC, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, to stop promoting coal and to switch to renewable energy. 
 
The seminar, held in the Marriot Hotel in the city of Cebu from January 26–29, was attended by the coal industry, power sector and government officials from the United States, Japan, Australia, Thailand, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. 
 
They met to discuss recent developments in clean fossil fuel technology and policy work to promote the use of fossil fuels as a primary energy resource. Outside the Marriot Hotel local anti-coal activists gathered with banners to reject new coal power plants. 
 
Many of them had travelled long distances to register their disgust about a government that is embracing dirty coal power and ignoring the negative impacts. Coal power is perceived as a major threat to the environment, to people’s health and to their livelihoods. 
 
Therefore opposition against it gains massive support among the affected communities in the Philippines. The preferred alternative to coal power is energy generated from renewable sources, such as wind power, solar energy, and biomass. 
 
The rally in Cebu was peaceful, with priests mediating between the police and the protestors. But the protestors made their objection to coal power very clear.

“There is no such thing as clean fossil fuels, in particular there is no such thing as clean coal”, said one of the marching protestors. 
 
Before the APEC seminar WWF held a press conference, together with the Cebu Alliance for Renewable Energy, representatives from local communities, Greenpeace, and a national coalition of anti-coal activists in the Philippines. 

At the press conference WWF criticized the flawed energy demand forecasting methodology used by the Filipino government. According to a WWF report the country’s power needs are exaggerated and the estimated over-capacity will cost consumers US$ 4 billion. 

“A flawed projection is a costly mistake and will be used to justify the construction of new coal-fired power plants”, said Ina Pozon, Campaign Officer at WWF Philippines.

The protest in the city of Cebu has sent a clear signal to the Filipino government that the people want something else.