The 5^th APAEC Drafting Committee (ADC) Meeting was held on 4 August 2020, virtually. The Meeting was chaired by Mr. Jonathan Goh, Director for External Relations Department, Energy Market Authority (EMA), and Senior Official on Energy (SOE) Leader of Singapore. The Meeting was attended by ADC Members from all of 10 ASEAN Member States, as well as representatives of the Heads of ASEAN Power Utilities/Authorities (HAPUA), ASEAN Council on Petroleum (ASCOPE), ASEAN Forum on Coal (AFOC), Energy Efficiency and Conservation Sub-Sector Network (EE&C-SSN), Renewable Energy Sub-Sector Network (RE-SSN), and Nuclear Energy Cooperation Sub-Sector Network (NEC-SSN). Also, in attendance were the representatives from the ASEAN Secretariat and the ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE), where the ACCEPT team is also part of the ACE delegate.

ADC Meeting discusses the latest draft of the ASEAN Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation (APAEC) 2016-2025 Phase II: 2021-2025. The APAEC Phase II: 2021-2025 is the continuation of APAEC Phase I: 2016-2020. It complements the original theme of “Enhancing Energy Connectivity and Market Integration in ASEAN to Achieve Energy Security, Accessibility, Affordability and Sustainability for All” with a sub-theme of “Accelerating Energy Transition and Strengthening Resilience through Greater Innovation and Cooperation”. The theme and sub-theme highlight more ambitious targets to enhance energy security and sustainability in various fronts. It also espouses commitments of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals by taking effective and concrete actions for the intensified promotion of energy policies and programmes for greater adoption and implementation of actions on energy efficiency and conservation measures, and development and deployment of renewable energy as clean energy options towards sustainable energy future.

Among several global perspectives that will shape the energy landscape of ASEAN during the APAEC Phase II is the Paris Agreement, which was adopted at the twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2015 and entered into force in 2016. Its central aim is to limit global warming to at most 2oC and ideally 1.5oC throughout this century. All ASEAN member states (AMS) have ratified the Paris Agreement. Thus, member states are legally committed to prepare, communicate, and maintain their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and also committed to taking domestic measures in achieving their NDCs.

The energy sector remains a dominant greenhouse gas (GHG) emitter contributing about 70% of total global GHG emissions in 2016. Therefore, the energy sector plays a vital role in climate change mitigation to achieve global temperature goals and the NDCs under the Paris Agreement. It should be noted that most, if not all, NDCs of AMS mention renewable energy and energy efficiency and conservation as key mitigating actions.

Hence, the ADC Meeting discussed and welcomed the input from the ACCEPT on the new Outcome-Based Strategy (OBS) No.6 Promoting Information sharing in Energy-Climate Nexus. Policy coherence in energy-climate nexus is an approach and policy tool for integrating energy and climate aspects at all stages of domestic and regional policymaking. To this end, action plans (AP) are proposed to implement OBS 6. The proposed action plans are to explore the synergies and trade-off between the energy measures and climate action in policymaking and in addressing energy issues related to the climate.

ACCEPT will continue to support the development of the APAEC Phase II which is expected to be presented at the 38^th ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting (AMEM) in November 2020.