4 RP cities are among world’s cleanest

The Sustainable Energy Development Program (SEDP), a joint undertaking by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the US Department of Energy (USDOE), has chosen Davao City to join the ranks of clean cities worldwide.

In their first stakeholders’ meeting, SEDP country director Divina Chingcuanco said aside from Davao City, they may consider three other cities in the Philippines to be part of the Clean Cities Program (CCP). 

These cities include Cebu, Marikina and one still unidentified city in Metro Manila.

"We are currently fast tracking the implementation of the CCP here in the Philippines,"  Chingcuanco said.

Chingcuanco said the consultation meeting is the first in a series of consultations in preparation for the launch of Davao City as the next pilot area of the CCP and the formation of the Clean Cities Davao Coalition. 

During the meeting, local experts on alternative fuels and representatives from the Department of Energy (DOE) presented and discussed the existing alternative fuel technologies in the country.     

Patterned after the elite US Clean Cities International (CCI) model, the CCP seeks to improve the deteriorating quality of air in highly urbanized areas through the use of alternative fuels such as compressed natural gas (CNG), coco biodiesel or coco methyl ester (CME) and fuel ethanol for transport. 

According to the SEDP official, the CCI members include the cities of San Francisco and Denver in the US and Santiago in Chile.

The meeting was attended by close to a hundred representatives from the transport, business, academe, government and other sectors. 

The CCP is a component of SEDP, a technical assistance program in joint partnership with the USAID and the USDOE.