Cebu, 2 other ASEAN cities World Bank’s picks as world’s green-growth drivers

Published on Wednesday, 24 October 2012 21:12

Written by Dennis D. Estopace / Reporter

SINGAPORE—The World Bank (WB) has chosen three fast-growing cities in East Asia and the Pacific (EAP) as defining the region’s energy future and greenhouse-gas (GHG) footprint.

“Rapid urbanization and growing standards of living offer a major opportunity to EAP cities to become the global engines of green growth by choosing modern energy-efficient solutions to their infrastructure needs,” the WB’s International Bank for Reconstruction and Development said in its report released here on Tuesday.

The report, titled “Energizing Green Cities in Southeast Asia,” noted that the Philippines’s Cebu City, Vietnam’s Da Nang and Indonesia’s Surabaya “show a clear correlation between investments in energy-efficient solutions in all major infrastructure sectors and economic growth.”

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Presented by Washington, D.C.-based Dejan R. Ostojic at the first Asia Future Energy Forum held here, it said that “by improving energy efficiency and slowing GHG emissions, [these] cities not only help the global environment, but also support local economic development through productivity gains, reduced pollution and more efficient use of resources.”

“The obvious question is why we didn’t do this [study] in Manila or in Jakarta or in Ho Chi Minh. [But] those cities are unique, they are megacities [and] very little can be replicated. The ‘next-wave’ cities, on the other hand, have tremendous potential for replicability, for learning,” Ostojic told the BusinessMirror in an interview.

He said that the Sustainable Urban Energy and Emissions Planning framework that Cebu, Da Nang and Surabaya have adopted could be easily followed by other cities in the world.

Ostojic added that a tool guide accompanies the report to help urban planners “go through the process” of replicating the experiences of Cebu and the two other cities.

The World Bank report noted that electricity consumption per capita for the three cities is low in comparison with other Asian cities in the Trace (Tool for Rapid Assessment of City Energy) benchmarking tool.

Surabaya is the biggest consumer among the three at more than 2,000 kilowatts per hour per capita. 

The three cities, however, exhibit high energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product (GDP).

This means that as the cities grow, each will experience “sharp increases in energy demand.”

By simply changing street lighting in Cebu, Ostojic said, could lead to more savings for the southern Philippine city.

With a population of 2.4 million, Cebu City is a net importer of energy—electricity, oil products and natural gas—according to the report.

City-wide usage of energy increased steadily year-on-year, with electricity demand growing 4.3 percent from 2008 to 2009 and 4.5 percent from 2009 to 2010.

The report said that by changing the street lights with LED lamps, Cebu would save an additional P540 million ($12.4 million) over a 10-year lifespan from an initial investment of P312 million, which can be recovered after 4.95 years.

Switching to LED lamps, it added, would also lead to an annual reduction in GHG emissions of 4,034 tons of carbon dioxide, citing results of a simple cost-benefit analysis.

Other areas studied by the team of Ostojic, energy-sector leader of the WB for East Asia and the Pacific region, included transportation, city-government buildings, solid waste, water and wastewater, power and city-government priorities.

He told the BusinessMirror that it took the team less than six months to finish their research on Cebu. The research  was funded by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID).

Ostojic said the WB is looking at investments in the transportation sector of Cebu, which the report noted is the city’s biggest energy user, especially of gasoline and diesel.

Diesel is said to contribute 17 percent of GHG emissions of the city and gasoline, 22 percent.

But according to Ostojic, these emission levels can be reversed if the local government leaders pursue recommendations given in the report.

“The challenge is helping strengthen capacity and developing strong institutions in these cities [Cebu, Da Nang and Surabaya],” he said.