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TOUR
LOGBOOK
8 - March 2000 - RAINBOW WARRIOR VISITS NEGROS OCCIDENTAL TO PROMOTE
SUSTAINABLE ENERGY
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BACOLAD
CITY, PHILIPPINES -- The Rainbow Warrior arrived today in the province
of Negros Occidental to support community organisations in their
campaign against highly polluting energy projects and to promote
sustainable alternatives. Greenpeace crew and campaigners presented
the community with a gift, a 400-watt wind turbine for lighting
and battery charging, as a symbol of joint campaigns on sustainable
energy.
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Rainbow Warrior is on a regional tour of Asia as part of a campaign
to expose polluters and dirty technology transfer while highlighting
the need for clean production and promoting sustainable energy options.
The boat has toured India and Thailand and since it has been in
the Philippines, it has visited Manila and Cebu. |
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"We are concerned about the social and environmental impacts that will
result from the deployment of fossil fuel technologies such as the proposed
50-MW coal plant in Pulupandan, which we hope will soon be a thing of
the past," says Athena Ballesteros, Greenpeace Southeast Asia Energy
Campaigner. "We decided to stop in Negros Occidental to help publicise
the initiatives of citizens’ groups to promote the use of renewable
energy and energy efficiency technologies instead," added Ballesteros.
Greenpeace recently launched a regional report entitled
The Big Switch - Renewable Independent Power Producers: An Analysis
of Future Independent Renewable Power Production in the Southeast Asian
Electricity Sector.
The report assesses the economic, employment and environmental options
and threats in the Southeast Asian energy sector, and compares the impact
of a power production based on polluting, conventional fuels such as
coal with clean, progressive alternatives based on renewable energy
technologies such as wind, micro-hydro, biomass and solar photovoltaics,
and on energy efficiency.
In Negros, a coalition led by the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement,
Greenpeace, the International Institute for Energy Conservation and
Solar Electric is proposing to pilot the first renewable independent
power producer (RIPP) project in the province. As part of the renewables
initiative, a comprehensive assessment of available energy resources
and commercially competitive technologies is already underway.
"The Rainbow Warrior is here to help advocate for a creative solution
to meeting electricity needs that is compatible with concerns for the
environment and promotes sustainable livelihoods for local communities,"
says Pete Willcox, captain of S/V Rainbow Warrior.
"The case of Pulupandan reinforces recent trends showing that western
companies have decided to make Asia their biggest dumping ground for
fossil and nuclear technologies," says Ballesteros. This alarming pattern
of dirty technology dumping is orchestrated by international financial
institutions and export credit agencies that provide transnational subsidies
to polluting corporations. Instead, these organisations should be supporting
more sustainable ways of providing energy in industrialising countries
like the Philippines.
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