Based on energy sector financing and investments flows data from 13 selected Asian countries from 2016 to September 2022, Fair Finance Asia (FFA) and Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)'s report, alongside research partners Profundo and Strategia Development Research Institute (SDRI), culminates with two broad and overarching conclusions:
- Asia is experiencing an ‘energy addition’ rather than an energy transition due to the slow uptake of climate and energy policies adopted by Asian policymakers, financial regulators, as well as banks and investors in Asia and beyond. This means that increasing volumes of renewable energy generating capacity are added to currently dirty and fossil-intensive grids, leading to no net change in global greenhouse gas emissions.
- The ‘justice’ element of Asia’s prospective energy transition is largely being overlooked and side-lined, particularly its implications for the most at-risk groups in society. Critically pertinent social considerations concerning decent jobs, gender inclusion, and indigenous rights, to name a few, are grossly omitted from national climate and energy policies.