21 June 2010: The International Energy Agency (IEA) has released a working paper titled "Renewables in Southeast Asian Countries: Trends and Potentials."
The paper focuses on the potential and barriers for scaling up market penetration of renewable energy technologies (RETs) in the electricity, heating and transport sectors of the ASEAN-6 countries (comprising the ten members of the organization of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus China, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India). In addition to analyzing the implications of effective policies on renewable energy market growth, the paper examines how to overcome economic and non-economic barriers that slow investment in renewable energy, and formulates policy recommendations to encourage effective and efficient exploitation of renewable energy in Southeast Asia. Due to the rapid growth in production of biofuels in the region, the paper includes a special focus on their sustainability.
The paper notes that, recently, decision makers in most Southeast Asian countries have fostered the deployment of renewable energy technologies in a more concerted manner, identifying the potential effects of climate change and the rising dependency on fossil fuels imports as key driving forces. [The Working Paper]
