IEEFA Asia Newsletter

Welcome to the seventh edition of our Asia newsletter.

We are a month away from the IEEFA Energy Finance Conference 2024, taking place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from September 2 – 4, 2024. The conference will feature energy and financial experts from around the world focusing on effective solutions in Asian energy markets. There is still time to register here to receive a conference invitation.

Recently, our team has analyzed some critical issues in Asia's energy transition:

• Investment in renewable energy in Indonesia has stagnated for the past seven years. Near-term renewable energy investments worth US$146 billion are needed from the private sector to achieve the country’s 2030 climate target. Our report advises addressing regulatory challenges and enhancing renewable energy investments through clear, consistent policies and effective implementation.

• Vietnam’s direct power purchase agreement (DPPA) decree now allows entirely private project ownership, transmission, sale, and purchase of renewable energy; effectively permitting the creation of private electricity utilities parallel to the state utility, Electricity of Vietnam (EVN). Our commentary explores how the government is facilitating near-term energy supply additions and buying valuable time for EVN to develop longer-term, larger-scale energy solutions, all without using the public budget.

• A growing number of South Korea’s mega-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal projects have been scrapped amid weakening LNG demand and looming overinvestment risks. Since early 2024, at least four LNG terminal projects with a combined regasification capacity of 11 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) have been delayed or canceled due to a lack of economic benefits and rising construction costs.

We look forward to collaborating in person with the IEEFA Asia community at our conference next month.

Paige Nguyen