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While the Philippine Government is rapidly scaling its capacity for offshore wind (OFW) — a permitting and consenting process has been formalised, and OFW contracts are already being awarded to developers — the fisherfolk and coastal communities affected by this change must be guaranteed fair access to benefits and safeguards for this energy transition to be truly just and sustainable.
To address this gap, NIRAS and the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) are conducting socio-economic impact studies in the potential Philippine OFW sites of San Miguel Bay and Guimaras Strait. Aside from articulating the economic and social, benefits of OFW development in the Southeast Asian nation, the study also aims to:
Recently in November, NIRAS and GWEC organised a multi-stakeholder roundtable workshop to present the study’s principal findings, local economic impacts, and potential benefit-sharing mechanisms, as well as to gather experts’ inputs for co-designing practical, community-centred implementation plans.
Participants included government agencies (namely, the Department of Energy, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Department of the Interior and Local Government, and Department of Labour and Employment), and civil society organisations (namely, NGOs for Fisheries Research, Tara Climate Foundation, and Task Force Mapalad).
Discussions primarily covered OFW’s impact on local communities and the ways this new sector can be beneficial to them.
The five pillars of the study:
billion expected to contribute to the Philippines' GDP from OFW development
jobs projected to result from OFW in San Miguel Bay and Guimaras Strait
direct full-time jobs projected to be created out of the 200,000
Top sectors that benefit from OFW development:
The team’s initial and projected total for the number of new full-time jobs that can result from introducing OFW — to the San Miguel Bay and Guimaras Strait areas alone — is over 200,000. About 12,000 of these are directly from OSW projects and about 200,000 are induced or are a result of OFW development but branch out to different sectors.
Preliminary findings also estimate OFW will contribute more than PHP 70 billion to the national economy through port and grid works, supply-chain investment, and local capacity building.
But given these promising numbers, how do key actors, both in the private sector and government, ensure gains also redound to the benefit of community members and fisherfolk affected?
Chief among the discussions were benefit-sharing mechanisms most suited to the Philippine context, particularly in Bicol and Western Visayas Regions.
Benefit-sharing refers to the different approaches to ensuring project results or outcomes, monetary or otherwise, contribute to socio-economic development. In the workshop, organisers and attendees laid out an array of commonly used mechanisms, including community benefit agreements (CBAs), shared ownership between developers and communities, and supply chain localisation, among others.
Best practices exercised by other nations — such as Japan and Taiwan — also helped inform workshop discussions. But a persistent theme involved governance, with both attendees and organisers agreeing that the existing regulatory landscape is fragmented in the Philippines. Each law or programme has its own approving agency, criteria, and administrative procedures.
As a key recommendation, the project team proposed an alternative benefit-sharing model. In the existing model, fund sources operate in silos. There are different administrators and beneficiaries, so resources for fisherfolk, communities, and local government units are disbursed through independent channels with separate criteria and timelines, which may entail issues in enforcement.
Through discussions with key local stakeholders and the roundtable with key national government agencies, the team is proposing a holistic framework on benefit-sharing rooted in early, continuous, and inclusive engagement with all local project stakeholders, including fisherfolks, local government units, and host communities.
Because questions on benefit-sharing mechanisms are still up for discussion, more stakeholder discussions will be held in the near future. Following this Roundtable workshop, the team will further refine the model in preparation for the regional and national launch events of the report, scheduled for the first quarter of 2026.
As GWEC’s Senior Policy Officer Jigs Consolacion put it during the workshop: “When communities see real opportunities — stable jobs, stronger livelihoods, better infrastructure, improved marine management — they will be the strongest champions of this energy transition.”
Renewable energy (RE) consulting plays a crucial role in the global transition towards sustainable energy solutions. As governments and businesses race to reduce carbon emissions and meet climate goals, consulting firms help navigate the technical, regulatory and economic complexities of adopting RE technologies.
NIRAS has decades of experience in defining and obtaining the permits, consents required to construct and operate offshore wind farms and their associated infrastructure. We work closely with clients to ensure that any mitigation and conditions attached to permits and consents are as reasonable, proportionate and relevant as possible.
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