After several years of flatlining, 2017 saw greenhouse gas emissions rise once again. Asia accounted for more than half of global emissions, and two thirds of the year-on-year increase. Under the Paris Agreement, all countries in the region have committed to significant increases in renewable energy capacity as a key plank of their responses to climate change, yet insufficient electricity transmission capacity threatens to act as a bottleneck to greater integration of renewables, slowing the transition to clean energy. This meeting will convene energy ministries, legislators, investors, utilities, project developers and regulators with the aim of overcoming diplomatic obstacles, increasing cooperation and strengthening investor confidence in cross-border transmission projects.
This meeting seeks to build diplomatic and parliamentary support for – and strengthen investor confidence in – new “electricity highways” connecting centres of energy demand to the most abundant renewable energy resources. The dual long-term objectives are to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and to ensure a reliable supply of cheap, clean energy for all. In addition to plenary sessions for markets analysis and elaboration of general principles for cooperation, participants will be invited to convene into three sub-regions, each focused around one of the region’s largest energy markets – China, India and Indonesia – together with its immediate neighbours.