In 2024, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported that Asia is currently warming to nearly twice as fast as the global average. Worsening climate impacts, triggered by increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) concentration in the atmosphere with no doubt increases Asia’s vulnerability. Asia is exposed to various physical climate risks, such as increased heat and humidity which affect livability, severe flooding and droughts, as well as typhoons. Rising temperature has intensified climate-related disasters, such as the tropical cyclone Yagi and Senyar which caused widespread loss and damage across Southeast Asia, particularly in the Philippines and Indonesia.
This state of Climate in Asia signals the need for ambitious mitigation measures—alongside enhancing adaptive capacity—to reduce the adverse climate impacts in the upcoming future. Deep, rapid, and sustained decarbonization is needed in Asia’s energy sector, considering Asia’s heavy reliance on fossil fuels. Currently, the growth of energy demand in Asia has been met by fossil fuels, particularly from coal. In 2025, an estimated 83% of the world’s coal-fired power plant (CFPP) is located in Asia. With such kind of dependency, it is important to accelerate energy transition in Asia to reduce the continent’s dependency on carbon-intensive energy systems.
However, recognizing the diverse capacity of countries, it is then important to understand the readiness of Asian countries to transition to renewable energy, given the risks and opportunities that the transition brings. Many Asian countries are grappling with balancing energy security and economic growth, while meeting their climate commitments. At the same time, Asia’s transition to renewable energy is also growing driven largely by the massive solar and wind energy development in China and India.
Several countries have declared commitment to achieve net zero emission (NZE) individually—including through energy transition—such as Japan and South Korea by 2050, and China by 2060. Recently, South Korea joined the Powering Past Coal Alliance, where the government announced its plan to stop building new unabated coal power plants and phase out 40 coal power plants by 2040. Meanwhile, the Southeast Asian countries, guided by the ASEAN Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation (APAEC) and national NZE pledges, are also trying to reduce fossil fuel consumption.
Asia’s heavy reliance towards fossil fuels has become a significant challenge for implementing energy transition, from technical and financial perspectives. Yet, there are also socio-economic risks and opportunities that come with such efforts with limited attention. These socio-economic risks from the transition must be well-managed for the transition to be accelerated with minimum social and economic impacts. Hence, it is important to understand which just energy transition pathways that fit with Asia’s context. Recognizing the importance, Indonesia Research Institute for Decarbonization (IRID) in collaboration with Solutions for Our Climate (SFOC), and Parabukas, convened the first knowledge exchange seminar, which aims to understand the Asia’s readiness in carrying out just energy transition and identify the region’s readiness in phasing-in the renewable energy, not only from the technical sides, but also from the socio-economic aspects.
