KUCHING: Ensuring energy that is accessible, affordable and fair for all requires inclusive policies, innovative financing and stronger collaboration between governments, corporations and communities to achieve a just transition in Southeast Asia.
These insights emerged from ‘Session 1: Powering Sustainable Growth – A Just, Inclusive and Equitable Energy Transition’ as part of the Sustainability and Renewable Energy Forum (SAREF 4.0) held at Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) on Wednesday.
The session was moderated by Hydropower Sustainability’s Deputy Executive Director, Allaince Alain Kilajian, and featured Southeast Asia and Pacific Asian Development Bank’s Energy Director, Dr Keiju Mitsuhashi; People-centred Economic and Business Institute of Indonesia’s (IBEKA’s) founder and Executive Director, Tri Mumpuni Wiyatno; Mahardika Energy Partners’ Co-Managing Partner, Arthur Simatupang; and Strategic Planning SEDA’s Director, Saiful Hakim Abdul Rahman.
Accessibility, affordability and inclusion
From the government perspective, Saiful Hakim stressed that energy transition must not sideline questions of fairness.
“So what does it mean by just and equitable energy transition? From the government perspective, when we look at just energy transition, we are looking first within this region and at the accessibility of the energy itself.
“When we talk about a just and equitable transition, accessibility is still an issue for many communities, including indigenous peoples whose lands host energy infrastructure but who remain unconnected to the grid,” he said.
Affordability, he added, was another pressing challenge. While some households could invest in rooftop solar, the costs were often passed down to others.
“So how casn the utility recover back the money from the public? How are they going to transfer this back to the people who cannot afford the solar panel?
“So this is one of the issues that we have to look at in terms of avoiding this additional cost being passed back to people who cannot afford the solar itself.
“We also look at this to the workers itself. When we try to shift from fossil fuel to renewable energy, there might be some workers being impacted as well, like people in the coal industry,” he added.
Although the issue is not apparent now with many coal plants still operating, challenges are expected to arise once coal plant retirements begin.
“So this would be another thing that we have to look at in terms of how we can risk the workers to go into the renewable energy sector.
“The government stresses that policies must be shaped with broad participation from all levels of society to ensure no one is left behind and all feedback is considered.
“At the end of the day, the aim is to reduce the gap in terms of the energy access and also economic opportunity. Transition targets are meaningless if more people end up without affordable electricity,” he said.
Financial perspectives
Shifting the discussion to financing perspective, Mitsuhashi highlighted the role of multilateral development banks (MDBs) as “risk absorbers” in the transition.
He emphasised that MDBs must go beyond funding projects and instead adopt a holistic approach that considers how energy transition impacts society as a whole.
“It’s not an energy project itself. We have to see it a little bit more holistically. It’s important that we change our conventional approach to projects or asset creation, even energy output.
“We are not just investing in energy projects or asset creation. We must adapt to new needs, be open to new ideas, and ensure that the benefits of energy transition reach broader segments of society,” he said.
He described MDBs as “energy transition risk absorbers,” taking on risks that private sectors or communities cannot bear.
At the same time, he said, MDBs serve as “fairness enablers” by setting standards that ensure inclusivity in energy development.
He added that MDBs work with governments to set policies and standards that embed just and inclusive energy transition into development planning.
At the project level, MDBs also ensure compliance with environmental and social safeguards to prevent communities from being adversely affected.
“In this way, we harmonise our approach with other MDBs and bring international best practices to energy transition projects,” he added.
Mitsuhashi also added that ADB has recently updated its environmental and social safeguards framework, which will come into effect in 2026.
“And this will ensure that we take a more principled approach to the safeguards matters and to be aligned with other multilateral development bank like the World Bank,” he said.
Private sector execution and efficiency
The private sector plays a vital role in driving equitable energy projects by focusing on execution, efficiency and community involvement, says Arthur Simatupang.
He said challenges in the energy transition should be seen as opportunities for the private sector to contribute beyond profit-making.
“As an entrepreneur, profit is not always one-sided. It can be multifaceted. Maximising profitability is not just about tariffs or contract pricing, but also about efficiency,” he said.
Arthur explained that private companies add value in the early stages of projects by helping to de-risk them, making them more feasible, bankable and attractive to investors.
“And then a lot of the financial issues will come in and see it as more of an attractive valuation. But I think the early stage is the key where you have all these technical aspects as well as non-technical.
“I come from Indonesia, just like Malaysia, a lot of the things also, you know, we’re trying to accelerate a lot of the narrative of decarbonisation and using more of the non-fossil and the energy transition story,” he said.
He said that lowering costs often comes from efficient execution, including delivering projects on time, avoiding cost overruns, and ensuring risk management, technical feasibility, proper permits, licences and community support.
“Involving the community helps de-bottleneck projects by reducing resistance. Allowing them to participate through smaller contracts or employment opportunities ensures smoother execution,” he said.
Arthur added that scalability also helps reduce costs, as larger projects benefit from efficiencies without relying solely on higher tariffs.
“With the right approach, we can develop projects that are locally rooted, meet international standards, involve communities and still maintain profitability,” he added.
Paradigm shift towards community resilience
Achieving sustainable energy requires a paradigm shift towards balancing environmental capacity with human consumption and empowering communities to produce their own energy.
Tri Mumpuni said the traditional large-scale, top-down approach to energy development must give way to small-scale, community-based models that prioritise local resources and resilience.
“In the past, we always focused on accelerating consumption because that was where the business was.
“We cannot solve the problem with the same thinking we used when we created it. That is why we need a paradigm shift,”
Tri Mumpuni, who has worked for 35 years with rural communities, shared her experience of helping villages create their own energy through small-scale projects based on local resources.
She said communities should measure energy potential according to natural resources and the number of people needing electricity, rather than putting consumption first.
She contrasted the “continental paradigm” of large-scale, top-down, efficiency- and money-driven projects with what she called the “archipelago paradigm” of Indonesia, which requires millions of small-scale, resilient solutions rooted in local resources.
“Small is beautiful. Small scale, community-based resilience and then biosphere approach so the local people will have their own space this is what I call it energy democratisation of energy.
“We not only of course looking for the big number but we give space to the local community to provide their own with their own capability and the approach is techno anthropology.
“We understand the people and bring the energy as the technology as close as possible to the community capability,” she said.
Practical strategies and regional cooperation
In the second round, moderator Kilajian invited panellists to highlight concrete examples their organisations were pursuing, and to touch on how energy transition connects to energy trading and ASEAN cooperation.
Mitsuhashi said that ADB supports transition at both policy and project levels by providing policy advice and loans to governments that include just transition actions.
“At the project level, we start with assessing current situations, such as the early retirement of coal plants, and carefully evaluate community impacts before proceeding.
“And when it comes to the energy transition in the Southeast Asian context, we cannot talk about it without referring to ASEAN. This is a massive undertaking that requires everyone’s support, input, and collaboration.
“In fact, we’re working with the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) countries on shadow trading for the power market so that there’s a bit of a practise using the real data so that the parties will be accustomed to what it means by having a power market,” she said.
Building on this, Tri Mumpuni emphasised that access to energy must remain the starting point.
“In many areas, people don’t even know what energy transition means because they have no electricity. Access must be the first priority,” she said.
She proposed five levels of empathy as a guiding principle: sympathy and consolation; pro-social behaviour; reciprocity and equity; empowering the less privileged; and full democratisation of energy and social access.
“If we approach transition with empathy, communities will embrace it more readily,” she said.
Turning to infrastructure, Arthur underlined the value of regional grid interconnection will balance demand while creating economic activity.
“We are already seeing projects connecting West Kalimantan and Sarawak, which have been in place for nearly a decade and these are very positive trends.
“The focus should be on both rural and urban populations, as well as retail and industrial areas.
“The challenge, however, is that Southeast Asia is not like the EU with its pan-continental network, or the Gulf states such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia, where countries are more seamlessly connected,” he said.
Yet, he added, even incremental steps could generate major benefits.
“Connecting islands boosts employment, technology transfer and fairness. And once you calculate the hidden costs of fossil fuels, environmental and health damage, renewables prove more affordable in the long run.
“Grid interconnection is the key to unlocking this potential,” he added.
From the policy side, Saiful Hakim reiterated that governments must manage the pace of change.
“Accelerating transition too quickly may burden people with higher costs. The government’s responsibility is to determine the right pace, ensuring energy remains affordable and accessible while industries adapt and workers are not left behind.
“People will not suffer from additional cost of energy transition and the energy can still become affordable and accessible,” he said.
Wrapping up, Kilajian reminded participants that collaboration is central.
“By having regionally connected grid, we can actually increase the justice around energy transition by supporting different sources of energy together,” he said.
