BAGUIO CITY — The Baguio City government is committed to taking steps to reduce carbon emissions in the Summer Capital by 2030 and achieve net zero in greenhouse gases (GHG) by 2050.
To achieve net zero, Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong is pushing for the public utility jeepney (PUJ) modernization program for a low carbon urban transport system; tree planting efforts; a sewerage system rehabilitation funded by a $50-million loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
He also mentioned a waste-to-energy project that has become a BLISTT (Baguio, La Trinidad, Sablan, Tuba, Tublay) Development Authority project that would establish a power plant in Sablan, Benguet.
When completed, this is where the city’s garbage will be dumped instead of in a landfill which produces methane gas that is 38 times more destructive than carbon, said the mayor.
All this is being pursued, he said, so that the amount of GHGs produced and sequestered, when totaled, negates each other and amounts to zero. — Artemio A. Dumlao
