Felicity Bradstock
Felicity Bradstock is a freelance writer specialising in Energy and Finance. She has a Master’s in International Development from the University of Birmingham, UK.
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By Felicity Bradstock – Oct 26, 2024, 2:00 PM CDT
- Southeast Asia’s energy demand is projected to grow substantially due to rapid economic and population growth.
- The region must significantly increase renewable energy capacity to meet growing demand and achieve climate goals.
- Foreign investment is crucial for supporting Southeast Asia’s energy transition and decarbonization efforts.
Southeast Asia’s role in the global energy system is set to grow strongly over the next decade, according to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) most recent publication. The region will contribute heavily both to energy production as well as global demand, as its population expands rapidly, and several countries undergo industrialization. Several emerging economies, such as Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia will play a major role in the global energy market in the coming decades, but they will need greater economic support if they are to achieve their climate pledges.
The sixth edition of the IEA’s Southeast Asia Energy Outlook covers energy developments in Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The report forecasts that Southeast Asia will become one of the world’s biggest energy-demand regions due to its rapid economic, population, and manufacturing expansions. This will threaten the region’s energy security and is expected to encourage political powers to develop and diversify their energy sectors. Southeast Asia is currently set to contribute 25 percent of the world’s energy demand growth between 2024 and 2035. The region’s electricity demand is expected to increase most rapidly, at an annual rate of around 4 percent.
The deployment of wind, solar, modern bioenergy, and geothermal energy projects across the region is expected to meet over a third of the growing electricity demand by 2035. This means that while Southeast Asia will expand its renewable energy capacity, it is expected to continue to rely heavily on fossil fuels to meet its high energy demand. Therefore, the IEA predicts that the region’s carbon dioxide emissions will increase by around 35 percent between 2024 and 2050.
The IEA’s Executive Director Fatih Birol explained, “Countries in the region have a diverse mix of energy sources including highly competitive renewables. But clean energy technologies are not expanding quickly enough and the continued heavy reliance on fossil fuel imports is leaving countries highly exposed to future risks. Southeast Asia has made great progress on issues such as energy access, clean cooking, and developing clean energy manufacturing, but now it must ramp up efforts to deploy those technologies at home. Access to finance and investment for the region’s fast-growing economies will play a pivotal role in strengthening their energy security and delivering on their emissions reduction goals.”
Of the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN),