
The Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) is offering a six-month energy transition story grant entitled the Jaime Espina Klima Correspondents Fellowship, in honor of the late journalist and media workers’ advocate Jose Jaime “Nonoy” Espina.
The Fellowship invites the participation of full-time journalists and freelancers in the Philippines, with preference to those working in the provinces. It will provide space for the most compelling local energy transition stories, particularly narratives that focus on transformational challenges, and those which go beyond vulnerability and dwell on agency and hope.
This story grant will support the research, production, and publication of stories that surface compelling but under-reported narratives surrounding the energy transition and low carbon resilient development challenges and opportunities through an online mentorship program that will run from June to November 2022.

KLIMA News and Updates
[Klima Reports] Solar power fuels Surigao island’s rise from Odette
On December 2021, Super Typhoon Odette, internationally known as Rai, devastated the provinces of Surigao del Norte and Dinagat Islands. A year later, Klima Fellows from Philippine Daily Inquirer Erwin Mascariñas and Ivy Marie Mangadlao visited one of the affected villages and documented how solar energy helped the community back on its feet.
[Klima Reports] Raising the bar: Part 2 – Benguet towns to partner with Beneco for sustainable power supply
The Benguet Electric Cooperative (Beneco) initial foray into renewable energy generation in Man-asok Buguias, Benguet is the first of many planned for the province to make Benguet self-reliant when it comes to energy.
[Klima Reports] Renewables best option for cheap energy in Mindanao
Assistant Secretary Romeo Montenegro, deputy executive director of the Mindanao Development Authority (Minda), loves to remember the time, not so long ago, when electricity rates in Mindanao hovered at P6 per kilowatt-hour, the lowest in the country. This was when hydroelectricity generated from the waters of Agus and Pulangi rivers made up the bulk of the region’s energy supply. The Agus and Pulangi plants had a combined installed capacity of 1,001.1 megawatts.
Jeepneys’ just energy transition bogged down by lack of support
Part 2 of a two-part series “A just transition to jeepney modernization entails putting critical infrastructure in place and empowering small cooperatives while developing renewable energy sources.”
Local stories on the Philippine energy transition launched
QUEZON CITY, November 28, 2022 – Energy transition stories written by non-energy beat journalists from across the Philippines were launched today under the Klima Reports, an online compendium of stories published by the Fellows of the Jaime Espina Klima Correspondents Fellowship. Named in honor of the late veteran journalist and [...]
[Klima Reports] Raising the Bar: Part 1 – Benguet’s Renewable Energy Quest for Stable Power Source
What are the potentials and challenges in shifting to renewable energy, particularly hydropower, in order to power up Benguet? Our Klima Fellows Carl Taawan and Sam Bautista explore the realities of venturing into hydropower in the province in this two-part story in the Highland Tribune.