Client: The Heinrich Böll Foundation

Southeast Asia’s energy transition needs not only to be accelerated in terms of technology deployments but also to be processed and accomplished justly. Doing so requires hinging the region’s energy transition plans and activities to the distributive, recognition, procedural, and restorative tenets of justice.

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Southeast Asia must change its energy development pathway for justice, the planet, and its people. A transition from harmful fossil fuels towards a transformed energy system that is renewable, democratic, and serves people is possible for the region. This report provides a regional analysis of an energy transition that builds on a 100% renewable energy goal for Southeast Asia by 2050 using the region’s renewable energy from wind, water, geothermal, and solar sources.

This report suggests that this vision of energy future for the region requires changes in technologies, institutions, and policies to usher in a just energy transition. This report offers a valuable opportunity to the public and civil society organizations to encourage and push their governments to change the trajectory by which energy is generated, distributed, and accessed. It suggests opening energy systems to more democratic processes that enable people and communities to access sufficient, affordable, reliable, and renewable energy of their choice.

To succeed, this report puts forward the need for deep, systemic, structural, and holistic transformations aimed at decentralizing the sector and opening energy markets to public participation. Southeast Asian governments must recognize that publicly owned and controlled renewable energy is a right, and therefore should be prioritized in COVID-19 post-pandemic stimulus packages. Governments must work to remove the hurdles that may limit progress towards a just energy transition. Political commitment through ambitious renewable energy targets, public funding, regional cooperation, and energy market redesign is essential. A just transition to a 100% renewable energy future for Southeast Asia can unlock new jobs, close energy poverty, empower people, reduce inequality, and increase opportunities for participation.

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Southeast Asia comprises 11 countries, 10 of which form the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). ASEAN is a bloc focused on promoting economic growth and regional stability. With a combined population of about 667 million people, ASEAN represents about 10% of the global population (IMF, 2021). ASEAN has set the goal of obtaining almost a quarter of its energy needs from renewable energy by 2025, aligning the region with international commitments of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (United Nations, 2015a) and the Paris Agreement (United Nations, 2015b). This regional commitment translates the understanding of energy transition beyond its member-states’ environmental sustainability to focus on improving quality of life, including access to sustainable fuels.

However, fossil fuels (coal, gas and oil) still account for 66% of the regional energy mix in 2020, mainly from oil use and gas- and coal-fired power generation. In terms of renewables, hydropower still dominates the regional energy landscape at 63% of renewable energy sources, while solar and wind energy contributed only 9% to the ASEAN energy mix in 2029 (ASEAN Center for Energy, 2021). Oil, coal, and hydro are energy systems with negative consequences on climate, ecosystems, biodiversity, and the livelihoods of communities.

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