energy transition

The Iran conflict is prompting a historic shift in Asean’s energy strategy

Asia bears the brunt of oil supply disruption, triggering a move to domestic investment and energy security

Data centres are buying substantial new renewable and nuclear electricity, but fossil fuels remain their largest source of new generation.
ESG INSIGHTS

Issue 196: AI’s complex role in sustainability; Keppel’s emissions targets

This week in ESG: AI hyperscalers now major funders of nuclear startups; Keppel well ahead on 2030 emissions goals

The Bac Lieu wind farm in southern Vietnam. Many Asia-Pacific economies are targeting substantial increases in clean electricity generation by 2035.

Asia-Pacific’s energy transition demands a labour market transformation

With a skilled and supported workforce, the region’s clean energy future will leave no one behind

Solar panels in Gansu, China. The country controls more than 70% of manufacturing capacity for almost every renewable energy segment.

Global clean energy manufacturing supply far exceeds demand

The glut has strengthened renewable power’s appeal as an alternative to fossil fuels

Nuclear power “is very much back in the conversation” in Asia, say industry observers.

As India and China surge ahead with nuclear energy, all eyes on Asean’s next move

The war in the Middle East beefs up the case for nuclear energy to underpin energy security

While solar and wind are the most mature and commercially viable clean energy sources, they are intermittent sources of power. 

AI-driven electricity demand powering hybrid financing for advanced nuclear startups

But scaling such technologies will hinge on the ability to bring in banks and institutional investors

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has disrupted exports of aluminium from smelters in the Persian Gulf, and that has hit beverage manufacturers in India.

The Iran war is coming for your Diet Coke

The disruption in aluminium exports is hitting beverage manufacturing and power grid build-outs

Ravi Menon, Singapore's ambassador for climate action, says that despite challenges in carbon markets, it is key to "rebuild integrity so that financing can follow".

Asean may be forced to choose between economic growth and climate if both are not decoupled: Ravi Menon

Singapore will work on carbon markets, nature-based resilience, climate resilience as the bloc’s chair in 2027

In 2025, Asean member states signed an enhanced Asean Power Grid memorandum of understanding, building on the original 2007 agreement.

Fast-tracking the Asean Power Grid amid global energy turmoil

While constraints remain, a faster pace of implementation is increasingly feasible

Ravi Menon, Singapore’s ambassador for climate action and senior adviser to the National Climate Change Secretariat, at Ecosperity Week, Temasek’s flagship sustainability conference.

Convergence of energy security and climate action is ‘fragile’: Ravi Menon

Three forces make it so: that the move to greener energy takes time, Asian states’ use of subsidies, and coal being dug in