Background

Balancing the need for safe and secure energy, social equity, and environmental protection is a challenge shared by many. Across Southeast Asia, countries, corporations, and communities are charting low-carbon development pathways and driving the transition to clean energy economies.

Introduced at the COP 26 UN Climate Change Conference, USAID’s Corporate Clean Energy Alliance (CCEA) is a coalition of business leaders and associations committed to working with the Agency, host country governments, and likeminded partners to facilitate the rapid deployment of state-of-the-art clean energy technologies across Southeast Asia.

This Alliance reflects its members’ shared priorities and commitments to decarbonize power systems in Southeast Asia. Working together, CCEA partners will seek to identify, inform, and implement clean energy solutions and policies that drive business and protect the environment.

In cooperation with CCEA, the Clean Energy Demand Initiative (CEDI) brings together corporations and countries to add clean power capacity and fuel broader economic growth.  It builds on companies’ renewable energy commitments to send investment signals to countries supportive of fostering an enabling environment for corporate renewable procurement.  The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Energy Resources is leading CEDI with relevant stakeholders, including the Clean Energy Buyers Alliance, RE100, the World Resources Institute, as well as NGOs and country partners.

Several USG supported teams are working to accelerate Southeast Asia’s clean energy transition, including:

• The Clean Energy Investment Accelerator (CEIA) is an innovative public-private partnership, jointly led by World Resources Institute (WRI), Allotrope Partners, and the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), that addresses barriers to clean energy deployment in the commercial and industrial sectors in key emerging markets.
• Mekong Sustainable Manufacturing Alliance, implemented by the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC) in partnership with ELEVATE and the Asian Institute for Technology (AIT), uses a market-driven approach to strengthen sustainable and competitive manufacturing by engaging the private sector, catalyzing market forces, and advancing innovative regional initiatives that will increase the adoption of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) standards
• USAID-NREL Advanced Energy Partnership - The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are partnering to support clean, reliable, and affordable power in the developing world. The USAID-NREL Partnership helps countries with policy, planning, and deployment support for advanced energy technologies.
• USAID Southeast Asia EDGE Hub (EDGE Hub) supports coordination, communications, analysis, monitoring, evaluation and learning, and private sector engagement for USAID energy programs in Southeast Asia.
• USAID Southeast Asia’s Smart Power Program (SPP) is a five-year program that will expand energy capacity through deployment of advanced energy systems, increase investment into the region’s energy sector, and improve regional energy trade to ensure secure and market-driven energy sectors that sustain economic growth. The program will leverage bilateral and trilateral partnerships, support regional initiatives, address cross-border issues, and create centers for training of energy sector staff to develop solutions that will help Southeast Asian countries become self-reliant and achieve their sustainable development aspirations.
• USAID Vietnam Low Emissions Energy Program-II (V-LEEP II) works with the Government of Vietnam (GVN) to mobilize private sector investment to increase the deployment of advanced energy systems and will support project design for clean energy developers and provide technical assistance to lenders for clean energy investment. Recognizing the power of the private sector, USAID V-LEEP II provides grants to support innovative approaches to mobilize private investment in advanced energy systems, facilitate incubation and acceleration programs, and support empowerment for women energy professionals

This workshop explores how the U.S. government can coordinate with and support the private sector to drive Southeast Asia’s clean energy transition.  This workshop will explore how the business leaders can partner with the U.S. government and like-minded partners to rapidly achieve their shared climate and clean energy objectives in the region. Key themes to discuss will be:

• How can partnering with the United States help leverage limited resources to achieve climate and clean energy objectives in Southeast Asia? 
• What partnerships should be considered to help drive business in clean energy solutions?
• What are some examples of successful collaboration that we can learn from moving forward?
• What tools are in place to facilitate and support technology, policy and regulatory advancements?
• How can the private sector access these tools?
• How can governments and the public sector further enable private sector leadership in sustainable energy solutions?
• What are the highest priority policy and technical barriers to advancing Southeast Asia’s clean energy transition?

This workshop will also feature expert speakers from USAID and State Department energy programs active across Southeast Asia, along with business leaders who will share their perspectives on how partnerships can help power the clean energy transition.