Private-public partnerships in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and CAREC and their scope for renewable energy projects

Rapid economic growth in several Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries has caused energy demand to sometimes outstrip supply. While these countries are increasing their energy production and electricity generation mostly from fossil fuels, there has been a rapid shift to renewable energy due to national-level voluntary commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the Nationally Determined Contributions.

Energy generation in most countries in the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation region relies heavily on fossil fuel exports. Interestingly, fossil fuel-rich Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan extract and use oil, gas and coal for their energy production. By contrast, Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz Republic use large hydroelectric power stations to generate electricity.

With limited public funds to finance infrastructure investments, especially in electricity generation, Central Asian and many Southeast Asian countries have also attracted a lot of interest and innovative private investment in green projects, primarily through renewable energy-focused PPPs. While investments and PPPs in hydropower projects have been the trend so far in both these regions, it has been shifting quickly in recent years to solar- and wind-based projects.