US withdrawal from climate deals an opportunity for Indonesia and Vietnam to restrategise: analyst

[SINGAPORE] The United States’ withdrawal from the mega climate deals with Indonesia and Vietnam aimed at supporting their coal-dependent economies’ transition to cleaner energy may not be the setback everyone thought it would be.

In fact, it could provide both countries an opportunity to rethink the financing mechanisms and the policy reforms required to accelerate the energy-transition programmes, said Christina Ng, managing director of energy finance think tank Energy Shift Institute.

“Vietnam’s and Indonesia’s experiences should prompt a rethink on whether there is sufficient diversity of financing mechanisms in the market, and whether they need to look beyond Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs) and develop stronger domestic financing solutions and infrastructure to scale investments more predictably,” noted Ng in response to queries from The Business Times.