Jakarta, 1 August 2022 – Achieving the renewable energy mix target of 23% in 2025 in the Southeast Asian region needs strong collaboration among the countries to support the sustainable energy transition and shift the fossil fuel investment into renewable energy.
It was confirmed by Fabby Tumiwa, Executive Director Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR) on the webinar ‘The State of Southeast Asia Energy Transition’ (29/7). According to him, Southeast Asia is growing to become a region that is entitled the second largest powerful economy in Asia after China so the energy demand will continually increase in the future.
“Many countries in the Southeast Asia region still relied on fossil energy such as coal, gas, and oil. Meanwhile, Southeast Asia is a region that is vulnerable to the impact of the climate crisis. Collaborative measures of transition from fossil into renewable energy in this region may give significant contributions toward global efforts to achieve the Paris Agreement target,” he said.
Indonesia itself has a 23% target for renewable energy mix in 2025 and 31% in 2030. Nonetheless, according to Handriyanti Puspitarini, the IESR study found that if there was no policy change, then Indonesia would only achieve 15% of the renewable energy mix in 2025 and 23% in 2030.
“If we look at the trend from 2013-2021, the renewable energy market has increased though in slow progress. In the meantime, according to the IESR study, Indonesia has technical potential in renewable energy for more than 7.000 GW. Meanwhile, the utilization only reaches 11,2 GW,” Handriyanti explained.
She examined the duration of permission matters and the complexity of the mechanism for procuring renewable energy projects in Indonesia makes investors reluctant to invest in Indonesia.
“Indonesia needs to increase its political aspect, policy and financial regulation to encourage the massive development of renewable energy, especially based on the results of IESR study, public awareness of the energy transition and climate change begin to increase,” she said.
On the other hand, in 2021, the commitment to increase the renewable energy mix in Malaysia had been conveyed by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Malaysia through Malaysia’s Energy Transition Plan until 2040.
“Malaysia increased the renewable energy mix target from 20% in 2025 to 31% in 2025 and 40% in 2030. Malaysia’s commitment would no longer establish a new CFPP to achieve carbon neutrality as soon as possible by 2050,” explained Anthony Tan, Executive Officer (Sustainability & Finance), All Party Parliamentary Group Malaysia on Sustainable Development Goals (APPGM-SDG) at the same occasion.
However, according to him, the Malaysian government also needs to encourage energy efficiency and holistic sustainable transportation planning.
“Malaysia needs a holistic national energy policy. Besides, Malaysia must develop or change National Automotive Policy to become a holistic National Transport Policy to reduce the utilization of fossil energy in the transport sector,” said Antony.
Vietnam’s commitment to achieving zero emission in 2050 was also conveyed by Nguyen Thi Ha, Sustainable Energy Program Manager at Green Innovation and Development Centre (GREENID). She explained that Vietnam was committed to ceasing the 7-8 GW CFPP operation to support decarbonization in the energy system by increasing the renewable energy mix on offshore wind turbines by 11,7 GW (9,7%) in 2030 and 30 GW onshore wind turbines (10,5) in 2045. The Solar Park itself will achieve 8,7 GW (7,2%) in 2030 and will increase by 20,6% in 2045.
To achieve zero emission, it will need significant investment in the energy sector, transportation, agriculture, and industry.
“According to the World Bank study, the required total financing for decarbonization is approximately USD 114 million in 2022-2040,” Thi Ha explained.
Vietnam has also planned a new strategy to develop an environmentally friendly transportation system.
“Even from 2025, Vietnam will commit to replace 100% of its buses with electric buses and equip it with supportive infrastructure for Vietnam’s electrification of the transportation system,” said Thi Ha.
Power plants in Vietnam are dominated by 57% of coal in 2020, along with a renewable energy mix of 21% in 2020.
Bert Dalusung, Energy Transition Advisor Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) said that for the first time the Philippines has a clear plan for renewable energy development.
“In this clean energy scenario, the Philippines is targeting a 30% and 50% share of renewable energy in the power generation mix by 2030 and 2040,” said Bert.
Bert added that the Philippines government realized that renewable energy would be a key element in the climate change agenda. Thus, citing President Ferdinand Marcos’ statement, the government will examine all transmission and distribution systems to accommodate the development of renewable energy and lower energy costs for consumers and industry. ***
The Webinar “The State of Southeast Asia’s Energy Transition” is available on the IESR Indonesia YouTube channel.
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