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Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana

The past year is one that few of us will forget. While the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has played out unevenly across Asia and the Pacific, the region has been spared many of the worst effects seen in other parts of the world. The pandemic has reminded us that a reliable and uninterrupted energy supply is critical in a crisis.
Beyond ensuring that hospitals and health care facilities continue to function, energy supports the systems and coping mechanisms we rely on to work remotely, undertake distance learning and communicate essential health information. Importantly, energy will also underpin cold chains and logistics to ensure that billions of vaccines make their way to the people who need them most.
The good news is our region’s energy systems have continued to function throughout the pandemic.
A new report, “Shaping a sustainable energy future in Asia and the Pacific: A greener, more resilient and inclusive energy system”, released on February 22 by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) shows that the energy demand reductions have mainly affected fossil fuels and depressed oil and gas prices.
Renewable energy development in countries across the region, such as China and India, has continued at a healthy pace throughout 2020.
As the Asia-Pacific region transitions its energy system towards clean, efficient and low-carbon technologies, the emergence of the pandemic raises some fundamental questions. How can a transformed energy system help ensure our resilience in future crises? As we recover from this pandemic, can we launch a “green recovery” that simultaneously rebuilds our economies and puts us on track to meet global climate and sustainability goals?
Clean and sustainable energy is central to a recovery from the pandemic. By emphasising the importance of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a guiding framework for recovering better together, we must focus on two critical aspects:

First, by making meaningful progress on the SDGs, we can address many of the systemic issues that made societies more vulnerable to Covid-19 in the first place – health, work conditions, poverty and inequalities, to name a few.
Second, by directing stimulus spending to investments that support the achievement of the SDGs, we can build back better.
If countries focus their stimulus efforts on the industries of the past, such as fossil fuels, we risk not creating the jobs we need, nor moving in the right direction to achieve the global goals critical to future generations. The energy sector offers multiple opportunities to align stimulus with the clean industries of the future.
The evidence shows that renewable energy and energy efficiency projects create more jobs for the same investment as fossil fuel projects. By increasing expenditure on clean cooking and electricity access, we can enhance economic activity in rural areas and bring modern infrastructure that can make these communities more resilient and inclusive, particularly with regard to the well-being of women and children.
Additionally, investing in low-carbon infrastructure and technologies can create a basis for the more ambitious climate pledges we need to reach the Paris Agreement targets of a 2-degree Celsius global warming limit.
How East Asia can drive the fight against climate change
On this note, several countries have announced carbon neutrality goals, showing long-term vision and commitment to an accelerated transformation to sustainable energy. Phasing out the use of coal from power generation portfolios by substituting with renewables, ending fossil fuel subsidies, and implementing carbon pricing are some of the steps we can take.
The Covid-19 crisis has forced us to change many aspects of our lives to keep ourselves and our societies safe. It has shown that we are more adaptive and resilient than we may have believed. Nevertheless, we should not waste the opportunities this crisis presents for transformative change.
It should not deflect us from the urgent task of making modern energy available to all and decarbonising the region’s energy system through a transition to sustainable energy. Instead, it should provide us with a renewed sense of urgency.
We must harness the capacity of sustainable energy to rebuild our societies and economies while protecting the environment in the pursuit of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana is undersecretary-general of the United Nations and executive secretary of ESCAP


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Opinion


Renewable energy and energy efficiency projects create more jobs than fossil fuel projects and can make communities more inclusive, particularly for women and children, and more resilient in future crises



Renewable energy and energy efficiency projects create more jobs than fossil fuel projects and can make communities more inclusive, particularly for women and children, and more resilient in future crises.


Energy

United Nations

Climate change

Conservation

Green living

China’s carbon neutral goal

Paris climate summit 2015

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Column

Eye on Asia