Southeast Asia’s shift to clean energy is entering a turbulent phase marked less by ambition and more by the struggle to build resilience against geopolitical, financial and systemic risks, a survey by Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore (SEAS) suggests.

The State of the Energy Transition in ASEAN survey, now in its third year, painted a picture of a region slowly growing renewables capacity but hamstrung by grid bottlenecks, shaky regulations, and weak investment signals.

Singapore continues to be seen as the region’s clean energy leader but its dominance has slipped sharply, the industry association’s study found.

While 95 per cent of respondents ranked the city-state as ASEAN’s top energy transition leader in 2024, that figure has dropped to just 51.4 per cent this year.

The softening reflects the rise of other players and the addition of more survey respondents from across the region.

Malaysia is now regarded as the region’s second most progressive country for the energy transition (14.3 per cent), followed closely by Vietnam (13.3 per cent). The more even spread of leadership perception could be read as ASEAN’s clean energy landscape becoming more competitive – or as a sign that Singapore’s influence is waning.

Despite its fading status, Singapore is still expected to lead on carbon pricing and the creation of a unified regional carbon market (29.5 per cent), as well as solar integration (21.9 per cent).

Singapore’s decision to delay the introduction of mandatory disclosure rules for smaller listed firms by five years – a move that undermined its reputation as an early mover in the region and set it behind Malaysia for climate disclosure – was made after the survey was done, in late August.

Some 105 professionals in energy, finance and academia across Southeast Asia participated in the survey from mid-August to 22 August.

Entrenched Barriers, Emerging Risks

Respondents identified familiar obstacles to scaling clean energy in Southeast Asia: outdated and fragmented grid infrastructure (73 per cent), regulatory uncertainty (67 per cent), and financing constraints (56 per cent). Supply chain instability (41.9 per cent) and skills shortages (25.7 per cent) add to the headwinds.

External shocks are now a central preoccupation. More than half of respondents (52.4 per cent) cited regional conflict and political tensions as the top threat to the transition, followed by energy protectionism (45.7 per cent) and supply chain disruptions (41.9 per cent).

Read the full article about Southeast Asia's clean energy transition by Robin Hicks at Eco-Business.