By Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr.Virtual Economic Forum last week , net-zero, decarbonization, and more renewable energy were discussed on Day 1. These concepts and aspirations are related to the new fad in finance — the environmental and social governance scheme where more investments in RE and under-investments in fossil fuels are promoted.Among the ESG-related points made by some speakers at the BWVEF2022 were: 1.
I checked the peak prices of agricultural commodities and the price curve is getting steeper upwards. Wheat, palm oil , coffee, and US eggs showed a steep rise this year compared to last year and pre-pandemic 2019. Urea — used for fertilizers, feed supplement, and starting material for plastic manufacturing — experienced an almost 300% price increase compared to 2019.
The “blackout during May 2022 elections” forecast by some climate alarmist groups pushing for more RE and ditching fossil fuel did not happen. On election day, May 9, power supply was at normal levels while demand was down and prices were low at P2-3/kwh. Incoming National Economic and Development Authority Secretary Arsenio Balisacan — the former NEDA Secretary under the PNoy administration, Philippine Competition Commission Commissioner under the Duterte administration — has long experience in socio-economic research and policy. He was also my teacher in Development Economics at the UPSE PDE program in the 1990s, the same semester as Sir Ben.
The economic team will face a very important problem — the huge increase in public debt and how to pay it back. From P6.60 trillion in 2016, this went up to P8.22 trillion in 2019, P10.25 trillion in 2020, P12.15 trillion in 2021, and P13.09 trillion as of March 2022. An increase of P6.5 trillion in just five years and one quarter.