Research Database

Indonesia is known as the largest economy in South East Asia and as one of the emerging lower-middle-income countries. Before the pandemic Covid-19, Indonesia forecasted its GDP growth to increase to 5.5% in 2020. However, this never happened following the pandemic it decreased to 2.97% in the first quarter of 2020. This paper focuses on the renewable energy role in accelerating the economic recovery in Indonesia by emphasising the role of justice in the transition process. We conduct systematic reviews from different sources, both primary and secondary resources. We qualitatively analyse the energy regulation and energy road map in Indonesia as well as some academic research articles. Indonesia has developed its general energy plan related to the energy mix demand and supply, which includes a long-term plan on developing renewable energy sources and reducing the use of fossil fuels. As the fourth most populated country in the world, Indonesia still focusses on cheap energy supply and energy access to fulfil the energy demand. Therefore the transition process in Indonesia is considered slow compared to the OECD countries. There is a significant role of energy in economic growth, both energy consumption and energy resources. Until now, fossil fuels have dominated the Indonesian energy supply and demand. This paper highlights the role of renewable energy in the economic development of the country. This paper suggests that the pandemic has highlighted the energy transition movement in Indonesia. The Covid-19 has driven more research on the role of renewable energy project to the economic development and demonstrate that a transition to a low-carbon economy could contribute to the economic recovery in a justice way in many sectors. Renewable energy development contributes directly to human resources development, and this development also contribute to health sector improvement. Finally, this renewable energy development could accelerate the economic recovery in Indonesia and reach 5.2 to 5.6% in 2021.

Southeast Asia faces one of the fastest growths in electricity demand in the world, driven by increasing incomes, urbanization and industrialization. Development and deployment of green energy technologies offer a natural conduit to meet the growing electricity needs of the Association of Southeast Asian Economies (ASEAN) region while also serving as a viable strategy to adapt to climate change. The aim of this study is to formulate the policy lessons for the ASEAN economies and governments in facilitating the development and deployment of green technologies and alternatives energy options based on a specific case review of the ASEAN. The ASEAN economic region is prioritizing sustainable economic growth while minimizing the regional impacts of climate change through decarbonization. The study undertakes a case-specific analysis in reviewing green energy deployment in the context of green growth and energy transition using secondary data sources and discusses the current status and future options of renewable energy development in the ASEAN. We find that carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies will allow the ASEAN to continue to use fossil fuels while achieving sustainable economic growth as coal demand increases in the region. The deployment of CCS technologies will also act as an enabler of hydrogen energy as a green energy solution in the region in the longer term. Boosting public acceptance to nuclear energy, implementing energy efficiency improvement policies and eliminating fossil fuels consumption subsidies are feasible short-term and medium-term policies. Increasing both the public and private sector energy investments and development of CCS technologies in the longer term are necessary complementary policies to maximize the benefits of greater deployment of renewable energy sources in the region and combat climate change.

As we know, nowadays financial sector is waking up the climate change. Therefore, the aim and novelty of the paper is to show the link between energy efficiency, sustainable economic growth, population and financial development in ASEAN 5 countries. Panel data analysis was employed and results shows that factors such as financial development, economic growth, population and renewable energy found to be important factors in influencing climate change in this study. Based on the results, increasing financial development, more energy use, high population and increasing economic growth will generate more CO2 emissions and cause climate change. Thus, there are several policies suggested to balance the relationship between financial development and the carbon emission levels and these policy implications should be considered and carried out by government and policy makers in order to improve the environmental quality in ASEAN countries. In conclusion, in the 5 ASEAN countries, financial growth plays an important role in waking up the issues of climate change. Many past literatures focused the impacts of renewable energy consumption, population, economic growth and foreign direct investment on climate change. Thus, this study narrows the gap that exists in literature.by focusing on financial development which able to foster vigorous economic growth especially in ASEAN countries. Overall, results from the fixed effect estimates show that financial development is significant factor and has a positive contribution towards climate change.

Energy has been a key factor in economic development. Myanmar has considerable indigenous energy potential, which could meet domestic demand in long term if properly managed. This paper documents the current status of energy demand and supply in Myanmar, and analyses the characteristics of energy mix, and concludes that (1) Myanmar is confronted with a pressing energy demand with the rapid development of economy; (2) Myanmar's energy production mix is dominated by oil, gas and hydropower, and the consumption structure is dominated by biomass; (3) the shortage of energy is mostly due to its unbalanced energy mix and irrational notion for energy utilization. In order to solve the serious problems between energy demand and supply, it is necessary for Myanmar to build more responsible hydropower projects, to optimize the national grid and to make more reliable and practicable plans.

Many countries have a clear policy objective of increasing their share of renewable energy sources (RESs). However, a major impediment to higher RES penetration often lies in the historically grown structures of a country’s electricity sector. In Indonesia, policy makers have relied on cheap fossil fuels and state control to provide the population with access to both reliable and affordable electricity. However, this focus on only two of the three horns of the energy trilemma, namely energy security and energy equity (and not sustainability), may put Indonesia at risk of missing its ambitious RES targets. In this context, a number of small-scale reform attempts to promote RES integration in recent years have proved to be relatively unsuccessful. Like many other countries, Indonesia needs clear policy directions to avoid an unsustainable lock-in into a fossil fuel future. In the last decades, several other countries have successfully restructured their electricity sectors, for example by introducing a wholesale market for electricity under different electricity pricing systems, including nodal, zonal, or uniform pricing. These countries may hold valuable experiences of overcoming the historically grown barriers to successful RES integration through a greater role for market mechanisms. We develop three generic models that allow policy makers to analyze the impact of introducing either a nodal, a zonal, or a uniform pricing system on the three horns of the energy trilemma in their country. We evaluate our model using a simplified network representation of the Indonesian electricity sector. Our results indicate that each of the pricing systems is able to foster specific horns of the energy trilemma. Considering that any major reform intended to improve energy sustainability in Indonesia will only be a success if it also addresses energy security and energy equity, we also discuss our results from the perspective of energy justice and the need to balance the country’s energy trilemma. Ultimately, we illustrate a transformation pathway for a more sustainable and just transition to a low-carbon economy in Indonesia.

ASEAN (The Association of SouthEast Asian Nations) demand on energy is depending on economic growth of each country, resources, and political and regulations of each country. This study aims to investigate the role of international trade, financial development, foreign direct investment (FDI) on the consumption of renewable energy (RE) in ASEAN countries of the world. The findings explore that positive nexus among the international trade, real output, financial development, foreign direct investment and consumption of RE. Last but not least, this paper will propose several recommendations and policy suggestion for ASEAN countries to manage and encourage better renewable energy projects in the region. One of its original value is that, in the globalization and integration era, environment pollution will affect all ASEAN countries and in the region, so these nations need to link together to implement renewable projects for environment pr otection and for further generation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as one of the deadliest infectious diseases on the planet. Millions of people and businesses have been placed in lockdown where the main aim is to stop the spread of the virus. As an extreme phenomenon, the lockdown has triggered a global economic shock at an alarming pace, conveying sharp recessions for many countries. In the meantime, the lockdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have drastically changed energy consumption patterns and reduced CO2 emissions throughout the world. Recent data released by the International Monetary Fund and International Energy Agency for 2020 further forecast that emissions will rebound in 2021. Still, the full impact of COVID-19 in terms of how long the crisis will be and how the consumption pattern of energy and the associated levels of CO2 emissions will be affected are unclear. This review aims to steer policymakers and governments of nations toward a better direction by providing a broad and convincing overview on the observed and likely impacts of the pandemic of COVID-19 on the world economy, world energy demand, and world energy-related CO2 emissions that may well emerge in the next few years. Indeed, given that immediate policy responses are required with equal urgency to address three things—pandemic, economic downturn, and climate crisis. This study outlines policy suggestions that can be used during these uncertain times as a guide.

The power generation mix of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is dominated by fossil fuels, which accounted for almost 80% in 2017 and are expected to account for 82% in 2050 if the region does not transition to cleaner energy systems. Solar and wind power are the most abundant energy resources but contribute negligibly to the power mix. Investors in solar or wind farms face high risks from electricity curtailment if surplus electricity is not used. Employing the policy scenario analysis of the energy outlook modelling results, this paper examines the potential scalability of renewable hydrogen production from curtailed electricity in scenarios of high share of variable renewable energy in the power generation mix. The study found that ASEAN has high potential in developing renewable hydrogen production from curtailed electricity. The study further found that the falling cost of renewable hydrogen production could be a game changer to upscaling the large-scale hydrogen production in ASEAN through policy support. The results implied a future role of renewable hydrogen in energy transition to decarbonize ASEAN’s emissions.

China offers the Global Energy Interconnections (GEI) as a planetary project to deliver sustainable development and climate action through large-scale energy transition by interconnecting most of the world's grids. What does this mean for Southeast Asian countries' regional quest for greater energy connectivity? While the envisaged China-Southeast Asia interconnections promise a durable regional energy connectivity, bringing distant renewable energy to demand centers using GEI technologies, these future energy systems are not free of technical and political challenges. A closer look at this future interconnections further reveals other chokepoints: politically powerful domestic energy regimes; levels of trust between China and Southeast Asian countries; aging and absent transmission infrastructures; heterogeneous national energy markets and regulations; and differing receptions and perceptions towards China's externalization of its surplus industrial capacity.