A PLATFORM to attract investments in the region’s transitional energy projects has been established by the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC), a Manila-based climate and energy policy group.
The platform is known as the Southeast Asia Information Platform for the Energy Transition (SIPET), ICSC said on Thursday.
“I cannot say how much investment will come in, but it depends on how we can encourage stakeholders to jump in, how the transition should proceed, and at what speed,” Renato Redentor Constantino, executive director of ICSC, said at a virtual briefing to accompany the SIPET launch.
The German-backed Clean, Affordable, and Secure Energy for Southeast Asia (CASE) project developed SIPET to facilitate and promote coordination in the Southeast Asian power industry during the changeover to more sustainable power.
“We designed SIPET as an open-source, transparent platform to encourage practitioners, experts, and advocates across Southeast Asia to coordinate and exchange information in a more seamless and inclusive manner,” Mr. Constantino said.
According to CASE, the energy transition in the region is hampered by a lack of institutional capacity, platforms for exchanging information, and duplication of work among stakeholders.
Mr. Constantino said SIPET is meant to address these challenges, while helping generate more investment for the energy sector.
“Our investment crisis is only a crisis because we need power in order to move forward… if we provide studies (and) data then we will have the basis (for determining) the kind of investment this region needs,” he added.
According to a statement issued by CASE, energy demand is expected to grow 80% by 2050.
“Through SIPET, we aim to facilitate the narrative in the power sector towards an evidence-based energy transition that robustly supports the region’s development strategies, and towards joint actions that secure a clean, affordable and secure energy future for Southeast Asia,” according to Simon Rolland, energy program director of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit Thailand. — Ashley Erika O. Jose