A position that is ever more precarious as resources are redirected to recovery efforts related to COVID-19.
In this year’s World Energy Markets Observatory, we explore how the region can balance these two competing priorities, while also fuelling increased energy demand and “electricity for all” initiatives. Here we present practical ideas for how utilities, policymakers and private companies can embrace a strategy that balances these priorities in the pursuit for a “better normal.”
Regional Highlights
- Demand for energy in Southeast Asia is expected to grow at a rate twice the global average over the next 20 years.
- Southeast Asian countries are responsible for just 3.7% of global GHG in 2019, but their share will grow to almost half of CO2 emissions by 2040.
- The region remains dependent on coal—but the pace of commissioning new plants has decelerated, and construction of new plants fell by more than 85 per cent from 2016 to 2019.
- Southeast Asia is becoming one of the fastest-growing solar energy markets in the world.
- China is the world leader in wind energy production with an installed capacity of 211,4 GW.
- CO2 emissions in China and India fell dramatically during the COVID-19 crisis, but emissions have since rebounded as lockdown orders were eased or lifted.
- COVID-19 also had a pronounced impact in Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam due to the relatively larger demand for power by the industrial sector and the export orientation of the economies.
- The race is on between China and Europe to see who will become the world leader in green hydrogen.