ACCEPT recently organized a brand-new seminar/webinar series called “Launching Talk”. The “Launching Talk” is designed to launch ACE products to a wider audience. Kicking off the series was the launch of the Policy Brief Series on RE Investment and the Covid-19 Energy Insights. Titled as “Renewable Energy Outlook and the Challenge on Investment in ASEAN during Covid-19 Pandemic”, ACE teamed up with IRENA and NUPI to share three key topics based on related analysis products. 

The webinar began with an introduction from the Executive Director of the ASEAN Center for Energy (ACE), Dr. Nuki Agya Utama. He shared the Renewable Energy (RE) progress that continues despite the obstacles due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He emphasized the importance of active cooperation between regions and internationally to support the development of RE.  

Next, the Norwegian Ambassador to ASEAN, HE Morten Høglund expressed his gratitude for the 5 years of cooperation between Norway and ASEAN, hoping that this collaboration could support in resolving various issues related to the climate crisis. Particularly, investment in the field of RE & Energy Efficiency needs to be increased to improve environmental quality and economy in ASEAN.  

At this webinar, Nadhilah Shani, an Energy Policy Planning and Modelling (MPP) Officer of ACE, becomes the moderator to guide throughout the agenda sessions. Before each session, a quick poll was performed to unfold the participant’s initial perspective related to the topic discussed in each session.   

The first speaker, Badariah Yosiyana, a Programme Officer Southeast Asia of International Renewable Agency (IRENA), elaborated on the “Strategies of Post-COVID Recovery and Renewable Energy Outlook for Southeast Asia”. Initially, she stated that the central element of emission reduction could be achieved by accelerating renewables and energy efficiency measures as the primary key to meeting global climate goals in 2050.  

Then, she highlighted that Southeast Asia’s renewable energy mix share would rise under both of Planned Energy Scenario (PES) and Transforming Energy Scenario (TES). She also explained the IRENA’s Transforming Energy Scenario pathway for the Southeast Asia region in 2050. Besides, she displayed a holistic approach against the socio-economic impacts of the energy transition within the ASEAN region including GDP, employment, and welfare. In the end, she closed the presentation by defining some objectives and interventions from every stakeholder for the future recovery and the energy transition plan.   

Afterward, Dr. Roman Vakulchuk, Senior Research Fellow of Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), talked the second topic entitled “Action Plan to attract more investment in renewable energy in the ASEAN countries” by mentioning about ASEAN’s investment climate over the last 10-15 years. In his first slide, He indicated that ASEAN has not been part of the global trend for investment in RE.  

Then, he showed the progress in terms of total investment in renewable energy within ASEAN for the 2006-2018 period, renewable energy legislation. He also briefly talked about regulatory indicators for Sustainable Energy and Vietnam Success story, according to this part, he would like to emphasise that the renewable energy investment climate could be realised by comprehensive government and institutional support. In the last part, he discussed both of key barriers and counteract measure of RE investment specifically.  

The last speaker, Dr. Zulfikar Yurnaidi, Senior Officer of Sustainable Energy, Renewable Energy, and Energy Efficiency (REE) of ACE, presented the “Covid-19 Impacts on RE Sector in ASEAN”. He started the presentation with a short introduction of ACCEPT and the following discussion was about COVID-19 in ASEAN covering the current cases and its growth projection. Then, Zulfikar revealed some important findings which are gathered from the Q1 Survey of Covid-19 on energy.  

After that, he briefly explained that Southeast Asia had been gearing up for RE development measures during the pre-pandemic period while during the pandemic period, the RE supply chain heavily disrupted (Q1 2020) and continuously experience inevitable struggles (Q2 2020). Further, he also provided a sneak peek of Southeast Asia RE status in H2 2020 period. At the end of his presentation, he informed about the COVID-19 page on the ACCEPT website.  

This discussion ended with an inspiring Q&A session. It was a fruitful sharing session, which has enlightened our awareness against renewable energy conditions amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Looking forward to another sharing sessions with IRENA and NUPI in our future event!  

For more details, please access the presentation file here, and watch the recording here. Feel free to contact the ACCEPT team if you need any further information. Stay safe and don’t forget to check out our COVID-19 page for more information on impacts of COVID-19 to energy and climate sector in ASEAN! 

Note: Unanswered questions during the Launching Talk will be addressed by speakers and made available here soon.