
The Southeast Asian country has the world’s fourth-largest copper reserves,fifth biggest nickel deposits and is also rich in cobalt, all of which haveimportant uses in clean energy technologies, from lithium-ion batteries forelectric vehicles (EVs) to solar panels.
Mineral requirements forrenewable energy technologies must be quadrupled by 2040 to reach the goals ofthe Paris Agreement. The World Bank estimates a 500% increase in the demand fortransition minerals.
That is encouraging mineral-rich countries like the Philippines, where miningis relatively undeveloped and accounts for only 1% of gross domestic product(GDP), to boost their production of so-called critical minerals.
According to a study in 2023 by the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Centre(LRC), a local non-profit organisation that works for environmental rights, the global areacovered by mines has doubled over the past three years, driven by demand forcritical minerals.
In the Philippines, the group says, that has exacerbated mining’s negativeimpacts on people and the environment such as depleting water supplies andforcing local residents to move elsewhere.
The LRC held that the country should mine what is absolutely necessary andsource them responsibly. It is calling for a new mining law that would onlypermit the indispensable extraction of critical minerals, and seeking toprohibit destructive open-pit mining or mining in sensitive ecosystem, and hiketaxes on the companies to give great benefits to local communities.
A draft bill filed by lawmakers and supported by the LRC in 2021 is stillpending in the Philippine Congress./.