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The Philippine Star
December 15, 2025 | 12:00am
During the 18th Global Warming and Climate Change Consciousness Week Solidarity Night, themed “Makabagong Kilusan Para sa Klima at Kinabukasan,” Climate Change Commission vice chairperson and executive director Robert E.A. Borje highlighted how cooperation strengthens the country’s strategy to mitigating climate change impacts which disrupt economic growth and sustainable development. He further underscored, “True resilience is not about how fast we can rebuild, but about how less we are broken.”
Philstar.com / Irish Lising
MANILA, Philippines — As the Philippines continues to be among the most at-risk countries to impacts of climate change, PLDT Inc. and its wireless unit Smart Communications Inc. have expressed their commitment to align with national strategies and contribute to climate solutions in the conduct of their business operations.
During the 18th Global Warming and Climate Change Consciousness Week Solidarity Night, themed “Makabagong Kilusan Para sa Klima at Kinabukasan,” Climate Change Commission vice chairperson and executive director Robert E.A. Borje highlighted how cooperation strengthens the country’s strategy to mitigating climate change impacts which disrupt economic growth and sustainable development. He further underscored, “True resilience is not about how fast we can rebuild, but about how less we are broken.”
In support of these, PLDT and Smart chief sustainability officer Melissa Vergel de Dios presented during the event how the telcos implement climate solutions, particularly in line with the country’s focus on resilience, adaptive capacity, and just transition.
Among these is the fortification of their fixed and wireless network infrastructure to withstand the increasing frequency and severity of climate events, ensuring continuity of critical telecommunications services during disasters and reinforcing community resilience and emergency response capabilities.
“Cell sites in the path of typhoons are being built to withstand over 300 kilometers per hour winds. In areas exposed to flood risk, we elevate gensets to higher floors. Our cable landing station in La Union is shaped like a bullet to deflect water from possible storm surges and tsunamis,” Vergel de Dios said.
In parallel, PLDT and Smart are also targeting to cut down on their operational greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by transitioning to the use of renewable energy (RE) sources. The telcos have been leveraging partnerships with RE suppliers and prioritizing switch for high-energy consuming network sites and facilities, including their main offices in Makati City and the VITRO data centers of PLDT’s ICT subsidiary, ePLDT.
PLDT and Smart are also mainstreaming low-carbon digital products and greening their network infrastructure as they continue upgrading to fiber optic cables and 5G technology. While these technologies enable faster Internet speeds, these are also recognized for having lower energy consumption requirements and generated GHG emissions per unit of data traffic compared to older broadband infrastructure.
