Knowledge, Understanding, and Social Acceptability of Green Coal (Bana Grass) as Energy Source among Residents of Bataan, Philippines

Abstract

Climate change is inevitably happening and with its effects comes the action of local and international government offices to combat this phenomenon that has become one of the major threats to the daily lives of people, animals, plants, and the surroundings. On January 2023, the Provincial Government of Bataan in partnership with Mackay Negros Bana Charcoal Corporation signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the plan of establishing a green coal (bana grass) power plant in response with a greener source of energy and the worsening case of climate change. This study aims to know how the level of knowledge and understanding be related to the possible social acceptability of green coal as alternative energy source. Stratified random sampling is used in choosing the respondents wherein Bataan is subdivided into its municipalities and lone city. After the "layering" is done, random sampling is executed to choose as to which barangay will the researcher do the surveying. In this study, 298 random residents in Bataan serve as the sample size as based in a research paper published by Monroe, et al in June 2010 about the use of a Woody Biomass as a Renewable Energy Source abroad. After the validation of the research instrument, survey process and tabulation, the data were then subjected to proper management based on Data Privacy Act of 2012. Spearman rho is the statistical tool used in analyzing the gathered data where it gave a result of 6.78042E-49 for the p-value denoting a very strong, positive correlation among the involved variables, implying that as the levels of knowledge and understanding of the residents of Bataan increase, their social acceptability with the green coal (bana grass) project also increase.