On January 13^th, 2021, ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE) was invited to participate in the 11^th Gulf Intelligence “Global” UAE Energy Forum 2021. The annual event took the theme of “ENERGY OUTLOOK 2021: Moving Beyond the Pandemic” this year. The virtual forum was compacted into 12.5 hours one-day event, and divided into four sections: Asia, the Middle East/Africa, Europe, and US/Americas.

Within the Asia section were three parallel roundtable sessions, one of which took the theme of “What Policies Must be Put in Place in 2021 to Accelerate Net Zero Ambitions?”. ACE participated in that session, represented by Dr Zulfikar Yurnaidi, Senior Officer of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (REE) and Senior Research Analyst of ASEAN Climate Change and Energy Project (ACCEPT).

Other panellists of the session were Monalisa Dimalanta, Chair of National Renewable Energy Board of the Philippines; Henry Wang, International Author, Advisor & Speaker; and Trung Ghi, Head of the Energy & Utilities Practice in Asia Pacific of Arthur D. Little. Michelle Meineke, Associate Director of Editorial from Gulf Intelligence took the role as moderator.

The session started with brief introductory remarks from each panellist. Dr Yurnaidi introduced ACE and its role in the Southeast Asia energy sector, as well as the recently released APAEC Phase II and AEO6. On COVID-19, he expressed his cautious optimism, having observed the pandemic impact on the energy sector—including renewables—but noting silver linings and hopes in 2021.

With consensus on such cautious optimism, discussions flowed freely on various topics, including renewable promotion policies, renewables outlook, coal financing, the “trend” of net zero policy, mainly in China, and hydrogen. The last two topics included as well short questionnaires to the audience. You may stream the session as a podcast here.