Covid-19 pandemic has caused many ASEAN official meetings being postponed or conducted as virtual meeting. Likewise, the Special ASEAN Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation (APAEC) Drafting Committee (ADC) Meeting was held on 14 May 2020 through a virtual meeting. This was the first official meeting on the development of the APAEC 2016-2025 Phase II: 2021-2025 which was held virtually through video conference. However, this does not hinder the AMS’s interest in attending this meeting virtually, discussing the key regional blueprint document that is expected to be launched at the 38th ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting (AMEM) this November 2020 in Vietnam.

The Special Meeting was chaired by Singapore and attended by ADC Members from all ASEAN Member States (AMS). ADC Members comprise the representatives from all AMS and all ASEAN Sub-Sector Networks (SSN) and ASEAN Specialised Energy Bodies (SEB). ACCEPT itself has attended and actively participated in the ADC Meeting since the first meeting in January 2019.

APAEC is one of the major ASEAN energy documents. Through Assessment of APAEC Phase I 2016-2020 in Policy Brief “ASEAN Energy Cooperation for Shaping a Low-Carbon Energy Transition: A Baseline Assessment of the Alignment between Energy and Climate Change” ACCEPT found that energy-climate coherent in the APAEC could still be improved. The findings include:

• Though the APAEC 2016-2025 Phase I document relates global energy development trends with the climate change, the position of ASEAN energy cooperation relating to climate change can be enhanced in the APAEC Phase II document by including more concrete terms such as the “Paris Agreement”, “nationally determined contributions or NDCs”, “climate change mitigation”, “decarbonisation”, “low-carbon” and “GHG emissions reduction”.
• Though the theme of the APAEC 2016-2025 is largely relevant to the (Sustainable Development Goal 7” (SDG7), SDGs were not mentioned at all in the APAEC Phase I document. Therefore, the framework for SDGs should be included in the APAEC Phase II document, including how the ASEAN energy framework is in line with SDG7 on affordable and clean energy and SDG13 on climate action.
• The APAEC Phase I document lacks a clear description of how domestic energy development at the national level will contribute to achieving the regional energy targets. The coherence of national and regional policies could be enhanced by monitoring the progress of renewable energy (RE) and conservation and energy efficiency (EE&C) targets at the national level, which eventually will result in achieving the regional targets.

It is great, then, to see positive signs of progress recorded in the Special Meeting. First, it was confirmed that the sub-theme for APAEC Phase II would be “Accelerating Energy Transition and Strengthening Energy Resilience through Greater Innovation and Cooperation”. This improvement is also in-line with the suggestion from ACCEPT through its Policy Brief “Energy Decision-Makers’ Perspective on the APAEC: Lessons Learned and the Way Forward”.

Moreover, under the Programme Area No. 6 Regional Energy Policy and Planning (REPP), the ADC Meeting also welcomed the newly proposed Outcome-Based Strategy (OBS) 6 that aims to improve the policy coherent on energy and climate issue.

The Special Meeting ended in a positive note. Moving forward, ACCEPT will continue its support to AMS in the development of the APAEC Phase II through raising the awareness about the implications of energy related climate policy and sustainable development goals to regional energy cooperation.