On 3 February 2021, ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE) conducted a virtual 15th ASEAN+3 New and Renewable Energy (NRE) and Energy Efficiency and Conservation (EE&C) forum. The event is focusing to discuss the way forward actions in the post-pandemic for energy sectors and attended by ASEAN government officials as well as the representatives from Plus Three countries such as China, Japan, and South Korea.

In this event, one of the ASEAN Climate Change and Energy Project (ACCEPT) researcher and also the energy modeller, Mr Muhammad Rizki Kresnawan, has been invited as a speaker to present the findings from the recent ACE’s flagship publication, the 6^th ASEAN Energy Outlook, and the possible sustainable recovery pathways in the post-pandemic situation.

Mr Rizki delivered the key messages of future ASEAN energy landscape from the AEO6 modelling report as well as decarbonisation strategies in the power sector. He emphasised the role of energy efficiency efforts will play a significant role for energy saving by 2040, which leading to the lower energy supply in the end. Apart from that, dercarbonising the power sector will also a prominent choice to be pursued since ASEAN has abundant potential of Solar and Wind energy.

As the region moving towards the recovery plans, it is indeed crucial for ASEAN to take the chance of pandemic situation to build stronger efforts in building a sustainable recovery plan. Mr Rizki presented there will be several key actions in different timeframe that ASEAN government should consider in order to make the recovery plan goes smoothly as follows:

• Short-Term​
  • Electricity tariff reliefs and subsidies to ease the burden​
  • Incentivize power companies who’s entering survival mode​
• Medium-Term​
  • Phasing out fossil fuel subsidies to avoid social cost of externalities​
  • ​Mobilize private financing to attract RE Investment​
  • ​Restarting the halted RE projects, especially Solar & Wind to boost the job creation​
  • ​Enhancing energy efficiency efforts in various energy sectors​
• Long-Term​
  • From the Decarbonised Economy towards Carbon Neutrality​

The discussions went freely with the moderator has agreed with the proposal from Mr Rizki, especially pursuing the longer-term goals of Carbon Neutrality. This goal also been set by the Plus Three countries with shared their knowledge in developing the ambitious climate target. In the end, the forum concluded that aiming more ambitious climate goals for the region should be started by building a best of sustainable recovery plan itself.