Southeast Asian Energy Transitions

Addressing the apparent tensions between modernity and sustainability in Southeast Asia, this book offers novel insights into the global challenge of moving towards a low-carbon energy system. With an original and accessible take on social theory related to energy transitions, modernity and sustainability, Mattijs Smits argues for a reinvigorated geography of energy. He also challenges universalistic and linear assumptions about energy transitions and makes the case for ‘energy trajectories’, stressing embeddedness, contingency and connections between scales.

Addressing the apparent tensions between modernity and sustainability in Southeast Asia, this book offers novel insights into the global challenge of moving towards a low carbon energy system. With an original and accessible take on social theory related to energy transitions, modernity and sustainability, Mattijs Smits argues for a reinvigorated geography of energy. He also challenges universalistic and linear assumptions about energy transitions and makes the case for ’energy trajectories’, stressing embeddedness, contingency and connections between scales. Contemporary and historical empirical examples from Southeast Asia, primarily Thailand and Laos, are drawn upon to show the importance of scale at regional, national, local and household levels. The transitions in the national power sectors here have been intimately related to discourses of modernity and state formation since the colonial era. More recently, plans for international cooperation and discourses of regional power trade have taken centre stage. Local energy trajectories are understood to be part of these transitions, but also as embedded in local social, political and spatial relations. Examining how energy practices go hand-in-hand with the dissemination of different technologies, this work shows the complexities of achieving sustainability in the context of rapidly changing energy modernities in Southeast Asia.

An understanding of the role of energy-related governance systems and the conditions required for a shift towards renewables in developing countries is urgently needed in order to tap into the global potential of low-carbon development. Although renewable energy sources have become technically feasible and economically viable, social and political factors continue to persist as the most critical obstacles for their dissemination. How Power Shapes Energy Transitions in Southeast Asia conceptualizes power for the field of sustainable energy governance. Based on empirical findings from the Philippines and Indonesia, the book develops an analytical approach that incorporates power theory into a multi-level governance framework. The book begins with a profound background on renewable energy development around the world and presents major trends in development cooperation. A power-based multi-level governance approach is introduced that is rooted in development thinking. Examining how coordination and power relations shape the development and dissemination of renewable energy technologies, the book also shows how decentralization affects low carbon development in emerging economies. Sparking debate on the ways in which energy transitions can be triggered and sustained in developing countries, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of renewable energy development and environmental politics and governance as well as practitioners in development cooperation.

Asian and European countries have adopted different approaches to the conflicting priorities of economic growth and low carbon emissions. In this volume – based on the revised versions of papers presented at the 24th International Euro-Asia Research Conference held in 2019 – the contrasts between the schools of thought of each continent are explored thoroughly. Ranging from topics as diverse as city logistics, shareholder value and management practices, the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement, Chinas geopolitical insights, sustainable agricultural development in India and the empowerment of women in Vietnam via microfinance, this book addresses sustainable development policies in China and Southeast Asia from many different perspectives.

With South Asia's growing energy demand, governments in the region are facing the short-term pressures of facilitating energy access, while attempting to formulate long-term sustainable strategies. This book explores how the key economies of South Asia are addressing issues such as the diversification of energy consumption profiles and import sources, investments in renewables, enabling universal energy access, challenges to regional energy cooperation, greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, and the policy changes that can foster bilateral and multilateral action.As governments seek to ensure access to affordable, reliable, secure, sustainable and modern energy, trends and drivers are emerging and shaping the South Asian energy landscape. The first section of the book examines energy trends at the regional level, while the second section focuses on the internal and external challenges faced by India — the largest energy consumer in the region and the third-largest energy consumer in the world.The diverse perspectives in this volume provide a holistic snapshot of South Asia's ongoing low-carbon energy transition, and highlight the importance of the region working collectively to navigate the many obstacles.

A volume on the political economy of clean energy transition in developed and developing regions, with a focus on the issues that different countries face as they transition from fossil fuels to lower carbon technologies.

This book seeks to examine the impacts associated with China’s carbon-energy policy in Asia and how, coupled with the Belt and Road Initiative, these effects prompt foreign direct investments in coal power and exports of renewable energy technologies. China shows a co-evolution of carbon-energy policy and energy transitions from coal to renewables. Assessing how the policy intensifies pressures and motivations to Chinese companies, chapters in this edited volume analyse how the policy has changed energy and CO2 emissions in Asia through the lens of carbon leakage, relocation, and halos. Contributors present in-depth studies on China’s investments and exports, and also its impacts on Indonesia, India, Vietnam, and Japan. Using applied computable general equilibrium and scenario input-output analyses, chapters investigate if regional electricity connectivity reduces new coal power investments through efficiency gain. Arguing that China is shifting from the world’s factory to the leading innovator and Asia's demand centre, it is ultimately demonstrated that China is likely to achieve climate targets whereas Asia to increase CO2 emissions and economic reliance on China. China’s Carbon-Energy Policy and Asia’s Energy Transition will be of significant interest to students and scholars of energy, environment, and sustainability studies, as well as Chinese studies and economics.