Session 2.4: Policy, Investment, and Cross-Sector Collaboration

Building resilient energy systems requires more than technology—it demands coherent policy environments, patient capital, and collaboration across sectors and borders. This session brings together perspectives from finance, government, and development practice to examine how investment frameworks and policy tools can be structured to support resilient, low-carbon energy systems.

Presenters will draw on plant-level evidence from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Pakistan on the policy and financial barriers preventing coal power plant retirement; the Kerala Model for climate-resilient reconstruction following the 2024 Wayanad landslides, which demonstrates how disaster recovery can become an opportunity to build net-zero, self-sustaining energy townships; and the persistent challenge of unlocking affordable capital for local and emerging clean energy developers in a region where investment remains concentrated among large utilities despite the critical role of decentralised systems in building resilience.