April 8, 2026
Iran is approximately 7,000 kilometers away from the Philippines. But an ongoing war in that part of the world rattles ours almost immediately.
This conflict in West Asia (or Middle East to the Western world) has disrupted crude oil shipments to the Philippines, a country that imports about 98% of it to power almost everything from commerce to agriculture. A lower supply of crude oil spells oil and gas spikes across the board.
Crude oil, or petroleum, is a fossil fuel. Global usage of fossil fuels directly contributes to climate change, which is driven by greenhouse gas emissions from said fossil fuels. Much of the Philippines is powered by fossil fuels; in fact, in our energy mix, coal and oil products make up about 60% (34% and 30%, respectively).
This dependence on planet-warming fossil fuels has had us in a chokehold for years—and this grip tightens whenever the global supply of fossil fuels is disrupted.
One of the first to feel this price shock is the transport sector, mainly public utility vehicle (PUV) operators and drivers. Households—especially those in vulnerable communities including low-income households, informal workers, small businesses, and farmers—are disproportionately affected, with limited capacity to absorb rising costs.
Before all this, what had cost around PHP 40/L of fuel for tricycle drivers now costs around PHP 90/L. Jeepney drivers, of course, weren’t spared. From PHP 71, a liter of diesel now costs around PHP 170. That’s a huge jump, especially considering how these spikes also extend to commodities such as groceries and utilities.
In a country that depends on volatile fossil fuel markets, disruptions hit transport systems and cascade into food, livelihoods, and economic stability, affecting people’s ability to move and access essential services.
To address the issue of unpredictable and uncontrollable price hikes, many voices from all sides of the political spectrum have offered solutions. Prominent proposals include transport fare hikes and suspension of excise taxes on fuel.
Despite the promise of these solutions, it has been slow-going. Recently, President Bongbong Marcos pumped the brakes on the fare hikes. And although the bill granting him powers to suspend fuel excise tax has been signed by the President, it won’t take effect until fifteen days after its publication – which in this case happens well into the second week of April.
These solutions may give the Filipino people a brief respite from the recent oil price shocks. Coveted as they are, these fixes are but temporary. They do not grant us immunity from future disruptions in global crude oil supply.
Voices from civil society and climate action organizations offer a different perspective: phase out dependence on fossil fuels and accelerate the shift to renewable, indigenous sources of energy.
Hands on our necks, we don’t shift to breathe better; we push back to escape the grip.
Powering our country mainly with fossil fuels has put us in this unenviable position of being helpless amidst geopolitical tensions. But should we invest in domestic and renewable energy resources, we can reduce, if not entirely avoid, disruption in energy supply.
This article by the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) has outlined how other countries like India and Indonesia have implemented efforts to provide accessible public transportation. This they did through people-centered fare policies and electrifying transport fleets.
Fast-tracking the shift to clean energy also provides us with a cheaper alternative to fossil fuels, not to mention a healthier one. For example, diesel-powered vehicles are known to belch black smoke in our streets, significantly making the air quality poor and harming human health. With diesel prices skyrocketing, utilizing electric vehicles sounds attractive.
Accelerating transition to cleaner public transport, efficient logistics systems, and strengthened transport systems that are affordable, accessible, and reliable is essential. Active mobility programs such as cycling and walking must also be a core of the government transport program, not just in reducing dependence to fuel-based transport amid global price volatility, but also to advance for sustainable and resilient transportation systems.
Local renewable energy infrastructure allows the Philippines to shield itself from rotating blackouts and high electricity costs during geopolitical tensions that disrupt fossil fuel supply chains. RE is cheaper, cleaner, and is a long-term solution to our energy woes compared to stopgap measures such as the suspension of fuel excise taxes or declarations of national emergency.
We’ve seen RE easing fossil fuel dependency issues in Pakistan. When the Russia-Ukraine war broke out in 2022, the citizens of Pakistan suffered energy shortages. This prompted a wide-scale, household, and business-led adoption of rooftop solar. This transition has so far ‘insulated Pakistan’s power sector’ from current market disruptions.
But in the Philippines, that’s easier said than done without government intervention. For example, the planned PUV Modernization Program drew a lot of flak from stakeholders for placing the burden of electrification on small-scale operators and drivers. A unit would cost upward of a million pesos, a price tag entirely unaffordable to the common tsuper.
Besides, an electric vehicle charged by a fossil fuel-powered grid like ours is still vulnerable to global oil supply shocks. Electrification without decarbonization will not pay off in the long run.
What we need is money to fund the just transition to renewable energy – money we can get either from the government or outside sources such as multilateral banks or other countries looking to offset their emissions.
Using climate finance, we can subsidize the electrification of our transport fleets. Doing so will now shift the burden of powering our transport system (and indeed our whole economy) to the government instead of the Filipino people.
This means securing a steady supply of climate finance, or funding reserved for programs that reduce a country’s emissions or bolster its climate resiliency. This is aligned with the concept of just transition, a principle that leaves no one behind in sustainable development.
Being one of the top climate-vulnerable countries in the world, the Philippines should be given priority to receive climate financing. Given our historically low emissions, by rights we should be cashing in on the concept of ‘polluters pay’ in terms of global responsibility to address climate change.
If handled correctly, climate finance can catalyze our transition to renewable energy and our freedom from fossil fuel dependence. Although this cannot immediately relieve the common Filipino from recent price hikes, it can surely shield them from similar incidents in the future.
Institutionalizing decarbonization efforts is well under way in the Philippines. A prime example of this is our Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), commitments we’ve made to reduce our emissions under the 2015 Paris Agreement. Under our NDCs are policies and measures designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a variety of sectors, including top emitters like transport and energy—fields directly affected by the volatility of our fossil fuel dependence.
Policies and measures in our NDCs outlining our transition to reduce fossil fuel usage in transport include the PUV Modernization Program, promotion of electric vehicles via the EV Industry Development Act, and expansion of active transport initiatives.
Currently, the Climate Change Commission and its partner agencies in climate policy are drafting the country’s most recent NDC text. Climate Reality Philippines hopes that these revamped NDC commitments reflect the urgency needed in addressing both the climate and energy crises, while keeping emissions reduction pledges ambitious and inclusive.
After all, the NDC is not just a document outlining our plans to address climate change; it is a framework of how we must do it while ensuring sustainable development.
Solutions like shifting to clean energy and reducing emissions then become matters of economic, health, and climate foresight. What we do now impacts how we get to respond to crises out of our control—like a war thousands of kilometers away.
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