Background

The agriculture is a major energy consumer in Asia. However, the current pattern of energy use is both unsustainable, owing to high dependence on fossil fuels and inefficient biomass use, and insufficient, due to poor access to energy in many developing countries where agriculture is the main source of livelihood.

From primary production, to processing and storage, to cooking, access to affordable and sustainable energy is essential to raising productivity and incomes, cutting food losses, enhancing climate resilience for farmers and agri-enterprises, and improving cooking conditions. Renewable energy solutions represent a crucial opportunity to meet these energy needs with growing evidence of their use for various applications, including water pumping, processing, cold storage and clean cooking. However, scaling-up their use requires closer partnerships between sectors and a water-energy-food nexus thinking to ensure sustainability. Cross-sector policy making, tailored financing schemes, innovations in appliances, access to market measures and skills development are crucial aspects to accelerate renewables adoption in agriculture.

Various programmes and initiatives across Asia have been implemented focused on the links between energy and agriculture, and offer valuable insights into benefits on offer for multiple Sustainable Development Goals as well as into lessons learnt to inform future policy and programme design. To capture these lessons, IRENA, with the support of local partners, has developed the ‘Renewable energy for agriculture: Insights from Southeast Asia’ analysis which looks closely at the trends in energy use in the agriculture sector in the region and discusses the opportunity offered by renewables highlighting case studies including from Cambodia, the Philippines, Viet Nam and Indonesia. The case studies provide quantitative evidence on the benefits of renewables in agriculture and offer practical lessons for policy, financing and delivery model design. IRENA has also been working closely with the UN FAO with the launch of a joint report at COP 26 and a commitment at the UN High Level Dialogue on Energy to collaborate on scaling-up renewables use in agri-food chains.

The side-event, co-organized by IRENA and UN FAO, will serve as a crucial platform to discuss the important energy-agriculture linkages and on renewables-based approaches to jointly advance sectoral development goals aligned with climate mitigation and adaptation objectives. The side-event will convene practitioners and policy makers who are leading existing programmes to share their experiences and lessons learnt, and, through dialogue, highlight key recommendations on how renewable energy solutions can be scaled-up in the agriculture sector in support of livelihoods while ensuring sustainability and maximizing socio-economic benefits. The theme of the side-event resonates well with one of the main pillars of the Asia Clean Energy Forum on ‘Integrated approaches for cross-sectoral benefits’ while also touching upon the other three.