Lopez-led Energy Development Corporation (EDC), the country’s geothermal energy leader, has added another feather to its cap by emerging as the only Philippine company to make it to the list of the world’s 200 biggest publicly listed companies that draw significant revenues from clean energy.
EDC’s inclusion in the list, called Carbon Clean 200™, provides another proof that the renewable energy company is on the right track to invest in a low carbon future.
The Carbon Clean 200 rankings are based on the total clean energy revenues of the companies, as rated by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
Eligible companies in the list are only those with a market capitalization greater than $1 billion and have earned more than 10 percent of their total revenues from clean energy sources. The companies in the select group lead the way with solutions for the transition to a clean energy future.
Carbon Clean 200 excludes all oil and gas companies and utilities that generate less than 50 percent of their power from renewable sources, as well as the top 100 coal companies measured by reserves. It also disqualifies companies profiting from weapons manufacturing, tropical deforestation, the use of child and/or forced labor, and companies that engage in negative climate lobbying.
Carbon Clean 200 list was launched in 2016 by non-profit organization As You Sow of Auckland, California; with media and research group Corporate Knights of Toronto, Canada. As You Sow’s mission is to promote environmental and social corporate responsibility, while Corporate Knights produces corporate rankings, research reports and financial product ratings based on corporate sustainability performance.
Both As You Sow and Corporate Knights produce the report to start a dialogue on how investors can work together to achieve a clean energy economy and on how to best evaluate and highlight those that are already transitioning to clean energy.
EDC is the first company in the Philippines to achieve a carbon-neutral status, or one that absorbs more carbon dioxide than it emits to the environment.
EDC, which ranked 119th this year in the Carbon Clean 200, hopes to move up in the list as it achieves its growth objectives in the coming years.
In 2016, the company generated 8,531.5GWh that helped the country avoid 7.5 million tons of carbon dioxide.
EDC goes beyond generating RE to help in decarbonizing the country by restoring forests through its BINHI greening legacy. It has planted 6.2 million seedlings covering 8,964 hectares of denuded land in 2016.
This resulted in 793,563 tons of carbon dioxide sequestered in 2018. That is on top of the 2.4 million tons of equivalent carbon sequestered in biomass for taking care of our geothermal reservations.
Its carbon footprint from operations in 2016, which amounted to 806,117 CO2e or carbon dioxide equivalent, is only 30 percent of the carbon absorption of the forests and plantations that it nurtures.
Aside from being carbon neutral, EDC is the leading renewable energy company in the Philippines. Its total installed capacity of 1,458 megawatts from geothermal, wind, solar, and hydro power sources accounts for 21 percent of the total installed renewable energy (RE) in the country.
EDC has committed to avoid investing in coal and to make RE more accessible to the Filipinos in order to help drive a low-carbon economy for the country.
This commitment was reinforced by EDC’s partnership with the Philippines Renewable Energy Holdings Corporation (PREHC), a consortium of investors composed of funds managed by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (Mira) and Arran Investment Pte Ltd (Arran), an affiliate of GIC Pte Ltd.
PREHC’s 31.7 percent acquisition of EDC’s total outstanding voting shares from existing shareholders is the largest single foreign investment in the country under the Duterte administration.
In the latest Carbon Clean 200 list, at least 29 countries are represented. They have an average market capitalization of $9.4 billion and generate over $363 billion in clean energy revenues per year.
China had the most number of companies in the list with 68, followed by the US with 21 firms, and Japan with 21 corporations.
The Energy Development Corporation (EDC) is a pioneer in generating 100% clean, renewable, and reliable power as an electricity supplier in the Philippines for over 40 years. With power plants all over Visayas and Mindanao, the company is one of the biggest producers of geothermal energy in Asia and is expanding its reach in the international market, allowing it to offer customers affordable energy rates. EDC also strives to provide the best customer service it can to all its clients by having helpful salespeople and easy to understand contracts. Because of all of this, it is poised to become the premier supplier of electricity for the Philippines’ Green Energy Option Program. EDC takes its mission as a renewable energy provider seriously and goes beyond sustainability by investing in programs that enhance the environment and empower its partner communities, thereby fostering regenerative development. The company has also been working toward being carbon-neutral by improving its energy efficiency, as well as implementing various greening projects to ensure that its mission to provide future generations with a better life remains intact.
