Southeast Asia is one of the fastest growing economic regions in the world. Its rapid rates of population growth, income and urbanisation will boost energy consumption with energy demand expected to grow by 80% and electricity demand to triple between 2015 and 2040 (IEA). To meet this demand, Southeast Asia has an opportunity to avoid locking in high-emissions coal infrastructure and to shift its financial flows towards a development path made of reliable, affordable and sustainable energy.
Amongst Southeast Asian economies, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam hold the biggest potential when shifting investment away from fossil fuels towards their significant untapped renewable energy sources. The shift brings the opportunity for those countries to accelerate growth, whilst mitigating their severe vulnerability to climate change, and achieving wider socio-economic and environmental benefits. Delivering change, however, will require efforts with a combination of ambition, clear investment frameworks as well as financial and regulatory reforms.
The SHIFT SEA team.
The “Shifting financial Flows to invest in Low-carbon Development in Southeast Asia” (SHIFT SEA) project encourages this shift of financial flows to low carbon development in the region starting with Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. Combining the expertise and resources of several local and international organizations, the project engages with a variety of stakeholders through research, high-level convenings, coalitions and capacity building to influence local and national policy making and investment frameworks in favor of renewables and energy efficiency.
SHIFT SEA provides guidance to the public and private sectors, empowering local actors to activate the change of financial flows and support green financing in Southeast Asia. To complement the bottom up action, SHIFT SEA also assesses the quality of international financial institutions (IFIs) investment flows against their Paris Agreement commitments and provides a review of commercial banks’ perspectives on positive regulations for clean energy.
The E3G SHIFT SEA team in Jakarta, Indonesia.
“Shifting financial Flows to invest in Low-carbon Development in Southeast Asia” is funded by the German International Climate Initiative (IKI), and led by a consortium of international energy and climate experts including Sustainable Energy for ALL (SEforALL), Climate Action Network (CAN), Third Generation Environmentalism (E3G) and Mission 2020 (M2020); supported by the local expertise of three in-country organisations: Yayasan Mitra Hijau (YMH) in Indonesia, the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) in the Philippines and GreenID in Vietnam.
Find out more at Sustainable Energy for ALL and by following #SHIFTSEA.
Latest activities from the SHIFT SEA project
Read E3G’s latest briefing, The Asian Development Bank: Asia’s future climate bank? here. Read the executive summaries in Vietnamese and Indonesian.
Read the press release in English for our latest briefing here.
Read Helena Wright’s latest blog, How can European Development Finance Institutions align with the Paris Agreement goals, here.
Read more here on the launch of the Indonesia Low Emissions Network (Jejaring Indonesia Rendah Emisi or JIRE) as part of an ambitious national plan for Indonesia to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by at least 29% by 2030.
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