{"id":1063,"date":"2017-10-05T08:28:57","date_gmt":"2017-10-05T08:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.350.org\/philippines\/?p=1063"},"modified":"2017-10-09T16:09:36","modified_gmt":"2017-10-09T16:09:36","slug":"climate-justice-activists-slam-coal-financiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.350.org\/philippines\/climate-justice-activists-slam-coal-financiers\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate justice activists slam coal financiers"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Piglas Pilipinas<\/p>\n

Climate justice activists, composed of civil society groups and people\u2019s organizations, held a concerted action today at the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) Ayala Triangle to protest the Ayala-controlled bank\u2019s planned financing of a new coal-fired power plant in Atimonan, Quezon. The said bank \u2013 housed by the Philippine Stock Exchange building where many other commercial banks are listed as coal project investors \u2013 was also slammed by climate justice activists for its continued financing of other coal projects.<\/p>\n

The protesters brought tall, inflatable, “dirty, costly, and deadly coal demons”, which served as a backdrop to a huge image of Ayala Group CEO Jaime Zobel de Ayala, to highlight the temptations of an obsolete fossil fuel to private banks such as BPI.<\/p>\n

The protest action is part of Piglas Pilipinas, a nationwide campaign for the Philippines to break free from fossil fuels. Its main call stressed on the importance and urgency of divesting from coal and other fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

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Climate justice activists and anti-coal communities held an action near the Head Office of the Bank of the Philippines Islands to protest the bank\u2019s of coal-fired power plants as part of the Reclaim Power – Peoples’ Action on Energy and Climate actions that are happening in November. Photo: Ac Dimatatac<\/p><\/div>\n

Coal: Not Clean, Not Cheap<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cCoal is not the answer to our country\u2019s energy needs,\u201d said Philippine Movement for Climate Justice Coordinator Ian Rivera.<\/p>\n

\u201cContrary to the coal industry\u2019s persisting propaganda, coal is neither cheap nor clean. In fact, it has time and again been proven to be dirty, costly, and deadly,\u201d said Rivera.<\/p>\n

According to Rivera, coal is the culprit for the health problems suffered by communities that host coal-fired power plants. He cited a Harvard study conducted in the Philippines which found an annual estimate of 2,410 deaths as a consequence to exposure to pollution emitted by coal plants. Rivera stated that residents of communities that host these coal plants often suffer from lung, cardiovascular, and skin diseases. He also added that due to soil and water contamination from coal plant chemicals, the residents\u2019 livelihood is often left destroyed.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoal is also deadly not just for local communities but for the rest of the world,\u201d continued Rivera.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe burning of fossil fuels, coal being the worst of them, is the lead contributor to carbon emissions that aggravate global warming, which we know to be the primary cause of stronger typhoons, longer droughts all over the planet, and other forms of ecological disasters,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n