14 Plans. The Philippines has advanced policies on climate change, and we are aware of ongoing initiatives led by the government on building resilience and preparedness aimed at enhancing the capability of local communities to reduce risk from climate change. However, the severity of climate impacts and the continuing persistence of the climate problem impinges on the country’s ability to effectively cope with the adverse impacts. This is why a lot of work needs to be done even and despite of the Paris Agreement. I wish to illustrate a point regarding the premise of the Duterte administration’s reluctance to abandon fossil fuels as a means for running the engine for economic development. The unsettling premise of President Duterte’s vision is that he seems to envision, to a huge extent, the same kind of development as the superpowers and the already industrialized nations. I’d like to think that this administration would have a more wholistic vision of development, as we have heard the President firmly and ardently profess his patriotism, care for the environment, and fidelity to the poor. The doggedness and determination to rid this country of criminality, drug abuse, and corruption, promote equitable social and economic development, solve the horrific transport and mobility problems, dismantling imperial Manila, among others, manifest that keenness to pursue a wholistic development vision. Unfortunately, the energy policies of the Philippines continues to become incoherent with such a vision. Currently, the Philippines Power Capacity comprises 32.5% Renewables with (6,962 MW Installed Capacity), compared with coal with 34.6% (7,412 MW installed capacity), oil 16.9% (3,620 MW installed capacity), and natural gas at 16% (3,427 MW installed capacity). Currently, the Philippines Gross Power Generation comprises 24% Renewables, 48% coal, 22% natural gas, 6% oil. 3 However, the Philippine’s energy plan points to maintaining a 40% share for coal for its Primary Energy Mix by 2040. This is compared to coal’s 22% share in the Primary Energy Mix. This is tragic and incredible. The Philippines seems to be bent on increasing its coal capacity. This is contrary to the earlier plan for the Philippines National Renewable Energy Program to increase the RE-based capacity of the country to an estimated 15.3 GW installed capacity by the year 2030, more than double its current level, and to at least 20 GW by 2040, also announced by the Department of Energy through the Renewables Readiness Assessment done by the DOE together with the International Renewable Energy Agency. And this is despite the renewable potential of the Philippines, with: • Geothermal > 4,000 MW • Wind resource > 76,600 MW • Hydropower > 10,000 MW • Solar > 5 kWh/m2/day • Ocean > 170,000 MW 3 Department of Energy