Modernisation in the traditional, orthodox sense intuitively evokes a visual of moving forward, shedding and leaving behind values, cultures and practices of the past to adopt new ones into the future. In the social sciences, the theory reflexive modernisation is conceptually more nuanced than “simple” or “orthodox” modernisation.
In the social sciences, the theory reflexive modernisation could mean incorporating old practices that remain effective and relevant, and with pragmatism in mind, taking these alongside new practices towards progress and advancement
By all accounts, the business of the energy transition, defined by energy historian Vaclav Smil as “the change in the composition and structure of primary energy supply and the gradual shift from a specific pattern of energy provision to a new state of an energy system,” is a process of modernisation.
In the Philippines, when it comes to the energy transition, there exists a narrative sung to the tune of reflexive modernisation, which lays claim on practicality, for instance on the baseload power provided by thermal coal plants while putting a positive spin on the use of fossil gas as transition fuel to meet the country’s energy needs, arguing on the grounds of pragmatism. One narrative calls renewables and its proponents “woke,” aligning with conservative messaging and a pining for past solutions and practices to be “made great again.”
Here we examine another type of modernisation which can apply in response: ecological modernisation. It is a relatively young, and still growing body of social science studies which examine how a variety of social actors and institutions attempt to integrate important environmental concerns in the functioning of their everyday lives, in their development, in their relationships with other actors, including their relationship with the natural world.
Proponents of ecological modernisation in social scientist Arthur P.J. Mol and colleagues would argue that from this view, environmental concerns would then result in becoming progressively incorporated into many more aspects of social relations, of institutions, and into values, cultures and everyday practices of contemporary times.
A solar punk style piece of artwork from Mindanao by artist Alyssa Marie Gabutero.
As a Filipino, I tend to agree and would argue that with the current state of climate and ecological breakdown, all societal, political and governance decisions for the Philippines as well as many other everyday decisions by regular people like you and me, should be made with ecological considerations in mind. Collectively as Pinoys, we have seen enough climate-induced extreme weather events ravage the country year on year.
Flooding, landslides, death, destruction—these experiences are too common amongst us, we would be hard pressed to find a full-grown Filipino who hasn’t been directly affected. One typhoon which came to the city where I was born, killing thousands overnight and leaving many others homeless was tropical storm Sendong, international name Washi.
Sendong left the stench of rotting parts of dead bodies in Cagayan de Oro for weeks, trapped under flood debris too difficult to clear out; that experience in turn left the sense of ripping resolve in my own body to work on climate issues for the rest of my adult life.
Working in the climate and energy space, it is easy to imagine the connection between environmental degradation and environmental impacts, and the need for a complete transition away from fossil fuels into a clean energy regime is something very obvious to me and to others in my field.
Those in the Philippines who argue for the indefinite retention of fossil fuels and the build-out of new fossil gas plants embedding them decades into the country’s future energy mix, are suffering from a severe deficiency of imagination. Fortunately, this type of deficiency is easy to cure.
Future scenarios and the public imagination
Imagining isn’t hard, we do it all the time. We can methodologically employ imagination to uncover what modernisation in energy could look like in the Philippines. In the methodology of futures scenario planning, what’s involved is the imagining of plausible future scenarios in order to plan properly for them as companies, government agencies and other organisations.
Then there’s a similar, in my opinion, better method: transformative scenario planning which focuses on “a collaborative shaping of the future” for complex challenges. From the book of the same title by Adam Kahane, this method confronts the traditional futures scenario planning which often focuses on understanding and adapting to plausible futures and instead proposes a transformative approach that aims to actively influence and change the future.
In the case of the energy transition in the Philippines, the transformed future is a just and equitable renewable energy regime. For both methods, scenarios are conjured by participants which, pending a full-on communications campaign, stops short at infecting the public imaginaries.
Our own Philippine Energy Plan (PEP) from the country’s Department of Energy (DOE) consists of scenarios, one aptly called “clean energy scenario” and while telling enough, imagining such a scenario offers too much of a challenge for the general public.
Here we can present a more visual offering in solar punk—originally a literary approach to science fiction which has evolved into a global community consisting of visual artists, writers and other creatives according to fictionist, Sarena Ulibarri.
Solar punk is steadily gaining ground among sustainability communications circles around the world as it conveys a technologically-advanced human existence that is one with nature, visually described by other observers like journalist Olivia Lai as “being surrounded by lush natural landscapes, buildings covered with verdant plants and vegetation complete with rooftop gardens, and cities that are completely powered by clean energy,” with one animated video of a yogurt commercial going viral for the visual promise it holds; a new video game is also in the works.
A solar punk piece of artwork from Mindanao by artist Carl Dexter Capistrano.
Solar punk is just one future end state, and yes a very visual one at that, ideally to be co-created in a participatory manner involving local communities, cities and municipalities. In the Southern Philippines, where my climate and energy work is directed, a call for visions of Mindanao’s clean energy future has produced similar artworks in 2020, way before the availability of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-produced images. These submissions were hand-drawn by Mindanaoan youth which was a heartening showcase of how people dream and visualise their own futures in the communities they live in.
There are a variety of other end states which can be methodologically determined through incredibly well-articulated models like Kate Raworth’s Donut Economics and the Club of Rome’s Earth for All model, the latter producing stories of 4 girls from 4 different parts of the world and projecting their lives into 2 different future scenarios—they are a wonderful read particularly the one of the desirable end state called “Giant Leap” where we managed to keep the planet’s health to a degree that ensures our own survival as humanity.
The point of all such examples is that we collectively as Filipinos must be able to imagine an ecologically sound desirable future for ourselves, and then the task of our own government, our businesses, academia, and civil society organizations is to work back and inquire on the steps of how to make this end state happen. This is too a call for Filipino storytellers, visual artists, writers and other creatives to enter the fold.
As for our policy-makers and other political and business leaders, here is a non-exhaustive list to further aid the imagination—just a handful of practical ideas really for the reflexive modernists in the house.
Investment in storage to respond to the unstoppable surge in renewables
The Philippines is experiencing a surge of solar, and there’s just no way of stopping it, primarily because of prices given that we have one of the highest electricity rates in the world. The market today dictates that electricity produced from solar is the cheapest, and this is confirmed by the International Energy Agency (IEA) from the last half decade. And if this is the case, here lies the opportunity for investments in Battery Energy Storage systems (BESS).
There are many types of energy storage already from the typical lead-acid or lithium-ion batteries we are familiar with, but we are also seeing innovations in water, even sand! Now we know there are a handful of Filipino companies entrenched in the business of fossil fuels, particularly coal and natural gas, and it is understandable that they want to go with the familiar, tried and tested, business as usual to which we say, “Oh ye of little imagination!” What about taking that financial resources and investing into this pioneering world of energy storage and what’s more, taking advantage of all the climate financing that’s meant for such projects.
Climate finance: do-gooder money for do-gooder projects
It is important to note that in international climate governance, global north countries have pledged to give US$100billion in climate financing per year to countries like the Philippines for projects in renewable energy and we have seen a handful of Filipino companies already take advantage of that, even though they continue to fund dirty energy, so this is both a call for the rest to follow suit and to stop with fossil fuel investments, because why not?
And here is also where the imagination of civil society comes into play. Many Filipino climate organisations, as they work on campaigns to get such funding implemented, the interest from businesses can help spark national and international support, and perhaps then the potential of collaborative efforts from both sectors would be beneficial for the entire population. Subsidies from the government for clean energy technologies and a strong Department of Finance (DOF) and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) directive for the entire financing industry to support such energy transition projects will also be beneficial.
Thinking twice about the primacy of a centralised grid
Beyond finance, there are legacy concepts related to energy which we must question, one of them is the assumed primacy of a centralized grid.
Picture this: individual rooftops with solar installations; a community wind farm with a local energy storage system. This is not a future scenario, it exists today in many off grid areas around the world under principles of distributed energy systems. In such situations, the argument on the baseload benefits of thermal coal and natural gas plants then becomes moot and academic.
Distributed energy also renders the entire Philippine energy system more resilient, especially in the event of extreme weather events we know too well. When typhoon Odette wreaked havoc on Siargao island, it was distributed solar that was key to its recovery. This model needs to be replicated in many other communities in the country.
Philippine energy sovereignty amidst geopolitical challenges
One more argument is for our country’s energy independence. If you don’t already realise, we have to import the coal and fossil gas we need to power the thermal plants these run on. That means we will always be slaves to fluctuations in global market prices, currency exchange rates and supply challenges.
No need to dive too deep into geopolitical analysis here but just to say that in contrast, having power plants that run on water, wind and sun which belong to the commons and are essentially free—this scenario brings about energy independence in its purest form.
And for this to manifest, financing, as discussed earlier, must be directed, or shall we say, forced by regulation to pour into renewable energy build-outs, energy efficiency, and electrification of transport.
Together in electric dreams: electrify everything
We never even have to need fossil fuels or fossil gas because we can electrify everything: think of electricity-powered buses, trains, electric cars and other plug-in mobility options—cleaner streets and more breathable air! While appliances become electric powered too, most notably stoves and ovens for cooking—indoor air quality is just infinitely better.
Add in gains in energy efficiency innovations for practically any energy-using machine or appliance, we are altogether realising electric dreams.
Cognizant of the challenge and friction surrounding the Jeepney modernization program of the country, we must delineate the problem away from electrification per se. Activists are not against clean transport and green mobility, but against the unequitable outcomes of an ill-defined transformation.
When the French government imposed a green tax on fuel to encourage the shift to public transport, this affected the poorest section of French society which led to the yellow vest movement. How we protect people who will lose opportunities, jobs and resources when we pursue the clean energy transition is just as important as the decisions of clean energy and storage technologies we employ.
Imagine democratisation with just and equitable outcomes
If we think about democracy, how do we apply it to energy and the energy transition? I have no full answer to that except to share that in Mindanao, I am involved in a project with local academics, technocrats and local businesses of a grid-scale energy storage project using the region’s existing hydro power facilities and new solar power plants to be built in key load centers.
The best feature about this project, which has received the most interest and support, is the feature proposing Mindanaoan mass-based ownership of the power facilities given that the sun that shines on the ground and the water that flows through the land are commons and therefore owned by all of Mindanao.
And these are not pipe dreams either. Such arrangements exist in many regions around the world. In Germany, the Netherlands and many parts of the European Union energy cooperatives are popular; and ownerships by tribal groups and first nations in countries like Mexico, Colombia and Canada are steadily gaining ground evidenced by the work of the group Indigenous Clean Energy.
When the project in Mindanao pushes through, it will be the first of its kind in the country and could start the wave of energy commons which shall see collaborative efforts between government, the private sector and civil society for wide-scale benefits for all citizens.
In the end, my strongest desire is to let Filipinos be stakeholders in the country’s clean energy transition. Let the people decide on individual projects. If all financing, concessional loans and grants are meant for renewables to replace coal, gas, diesel and other dirty energy, when the Filipinos themselves participate in the decision-making and I doubt we will still collectively choose to deliberately dirty the air we breathe in order to produce our electricity or to transport ourselves and the goods we use and produce.
Now there will always be something to criticize and the values, cultures and practices, even the technologies around the clean energy transition are not immune to this.
If we indeed follow ecological modernisation, we must pay attention that what we choose today should have as little ecological impact if at all, albeit also aware that the solutions of today will never be perfect, and that we should not let the perfect be the enemy of the good to start imagining and acting on the clean, just and equitable energy future we all deserve.
Philline van der Wolk-Donggay is Founder and Chief Storyteller of Greenergy and serving as Director of Greenergy Foundation.
