SCARCITY

                  Resource Scarcity and Climate Change

“Going green” has rapidly become the new norm for the industries of tomorrow.This mindset coupled with initiatives and policies that focus on climate change, resource scarcity, and increased consumer, industry and political interests is putting pressure on businesses to evolve from traditional technologies to more innovative ones. In this environment, it is inevitable that clean technologies on efficient resource consumption, renewable energy, biofuels, information technology, waste reduction and management, among others, will lead to a paradigm shift in business practices.

Much of these and other activities are premised on the expectation that demand for food, water, and energy will grow by approximately 35%, 40%, and 50%, respectively, while climate change will worsen the outlook for the availability of these critical resources. These were the figures reported in the Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds report published by the National Intelligence Council in 2012. It mainly attributes the increase in demand to the increase in global population and the consumption patterns of an expanding middle class.

On the demand for energy, for instance, many industry groups are concerned that the increasing household and industry electricity consumption, driven by the growth in the economy, could eventually lead to a power crisis. The recent widespread power failure in Mindanao is quite ominous. The energy supply could be eroded further by delays and oppositions to several power infrastructure projects. This is a potential risk that could disrupt the power supply and otherwise cause prices to shoot up, affecting businesses, industries and consumers and eventually undermining our fast growing economy.

Around the world, almost every government has included addressing resource scarcity and climate change in their agenda. Some noteworthy achievements in the energy sector are China’s clean energy and efficiency initiatives, Saudi Arabia’s solar development plan, and Brazil’s efforts to promote wind and biofuels.For its part, the Philippines has enacted several laws and policies and established a clean technology fund investment plan focusing on energy and transport, to tackle resource efficiency issues. Our government focusing primarily on energy spearheads most of the cleantech initiatives and projects which the business sector has already begun to embrace.

Clearly, our government is embarking on cleantech as a viable alternative to address the growing demand for energy, with the private sector playing a key role in providing investments and expertise to aid its success.Further, the largest global corporations are meeting the challenge of transitioning to a low-carbon and resource-efficient economy through proactive energy strategies. Global corporate energy strategies are based on improving energy efficiency to mitigate energy cost hikes, increasing use of renewable energy and growing energy self-generation.

To address these risks, local companies are currently reviewing their supply chains, reducing carbon emissions and adopting green technologies. Most notably, many companies have already started utilizing RE as a feasible strategy to achieve self-sufficiency for its energy needs. The DOE website mentions 31 energy generation projects awarded under RE Law for “own-use” by companies. Playing on the strength of the Philippines as an agricultural country, these companies turned mostly to biomass as feedstock for energy self-generation.Globally, every business will be affected by the growing world population, rising consumption and a deteriorating supply of natural resources. To remain competitive, businesses should assess how these factors can impact their operations.

So I conclude that each of us Filipinos should take care of the environment by teaching ourselves discipline and sharing this knowledge to other people. To avoid scarcity of natural resources on the upcoming years and also to avoid costly interventions by doing a simple job we can all benefit from it. Just thinking about it and stop being lazy we can all do it.

CANTAL,MARY ANJUNETTE N.

BSOT-3A