RECCESSARY’s “ASEAN Weekly” highlights Southeast Asia’s new energy and carbon market updates. (Image: RECCESSARY)
This week in ASEAN, high financing costs remain a major barrier to renewable energy development, according to a new ASEAN energy report. Meanwhile, Energy Tech Summit Asia, held in the region for the first time, brought together industry leaders and investors to discuss rising AI power demand, grid infrastructure and financing challenges facing climate technologies. Here are the key ASEAN stories from Oct. 5–11.
High financing costs hinder Southeast Asia’s energy transition, ASEAN report finds
ASEAN’s energy demand continues to grow, but the region faces an annual investment gap of around USD 405 billion through 2060. Renewables currently account for less than 15% of the energy mix, well below the region’s target.
Meanwhile, geothermal development has emerged as a key topic at the ASEAN Energy Business Forum (AEBF), where industry experts highlighted exploration risks, transmission constraints, financing challenges and complex approval processes as major barriers to development. Read more here
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ASEAN recently held a series of energy ministerial meetings and business forums to build consensus on the region’s energy development. (Photo: AEBF)
From offtakers to infrastructure: Six priorities for Vietnam’s hydrogen development
Hydrogen can be used as a chemical feedstock, reducing agent, fuel, or energy-storage medium. However, its development requires careful consideration of the energy and economic costs of converting electricity into hydrogen and subsequently transporting, storing, or converting it again.
The strategic question is therefore not whether hydrogen can replace conventional energy across the economy, but where hydrogen can create the highest value within an integrated future energy system. This question is particularly important for Vietnam, where electricity demand is expected to continue increasing while the country develops renewable energy and pursues net-zero emissions by 2050. Read more here
ETS Asia: As renewables, AI data centers expand, can Asia’s grids keep pace?
With its large population, growing economies and strong industrial base, Asia was the summit’s first destination outside Europe. Energy Tech Summit founder Skaiste Knyzaite said on Sept. 29 that the region’s energy transition is not only about cutting emissions, but also about supporting economic growth and maintaining energy security. Read more here
Energy Tech Summit Asia brought together energy and data center players to discuss rising power demand from AI. (Photo: Hsu Tsu-lin)
ETS Asia: What investors look for as climate tech moves from FOAK to scale
For climate technologies moving from the laboratory to the market, proving that the technology works is only the first hurdle. Building the first commercial-scale facility can require substantial capital, yet companies often lack the track record needed to secure bank financing.
On the second day of Energy Tech Summit Asia, discussions turned to this financing challenge. From first-of-a-kind (FOAK) projects to blended finance, investors and industry experts explored how emerging technologies can bridge the funding gap and move toward commercial scale. Read more here
Between ambition and trust: Tracking Southeast Asia’s climate transition
The latest United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report released in early September 2026 delivered a sobering notice. The world is set to cross the 1.5 degree Celsius global warming limit that 194 Parties to the Paris Agreement (minus the US) agreed to avoid hitting at all costs. This is the irreversible tipping point that scientists have been warning about for years. In other words, without concentrated and collective efforts to cut emissions, climate crises and the magnitude of disasters — from typhoons, cyclones, floods, to wildfires and the recent devastating Nepal landslide — will intensify. Read more here
Indonesia’s geothermal push runs into local fears at Mount Ungaran
Communities living near Mount Ungaran in Indonesia’s Central Java province have slammed plans to revive a geothermal power project there, saying it could threaten water supplies and farming livelihoods.
Indonesia sits in one of the most seismically active zones in the world, which gives it massive potential to generate electricity from geothermal energy: an estimated 23.2 gigawatts, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources. The ministry describes Indonesia as having the world’s largest geothermal resource potential, ahead of countries including the United States and the Philippines. Read more here
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