Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu, May 13, 2026— During the 48th ASEAN Summit in Cebu, Southeast Asian state leaders placed energy security at the center of discussions highlighting the Enhanced ASEAN Power Grid Memorandum of Understanding as a key initiative to strengthen cross-border renewable energy cooperation, improve grid resilience, and accelerate clean energy integration across the region.
The renewed focus on regional renewable energy cooperation is a positive signal that ASEAN increasingly recognizes the need to move beyond fossil fuel dependence.
While a welcome step forward and an urgently needed gesture for the ASEAN states in the energy emergency, the renewable energy announcements remain far from enough to meet the scale and urgency of the region’s overlapping climate and energy crises. ASEAN leaders have yet to put forward clear and ambitious action points, concrete timelines, and strong financing mechanisms that would enable communities, governments, and citizens to directly participate in and benefit from the energy transition.
Much of the regional conversations on energy security still revolves around securing fossil fuel supply, protecting trade routes, and expanding large scale infrastructure rather than rapidly transforming the energy system itself.
“What ASEAN needs is not more fossil fuel lock-in, but faster investment in people-led and people-centered renewable energy systems,” said Jasmine Sabado, Senior Energy Campaigner at Manila-based climate advocacy group People of Asia for Climate Solutions. “If ASEAN is serious about climate resilience and energy security, then people-centered renewable energy must become a regional priority.”
The continued volatility of global fossil fuel markets has once again exposed the vulnerability among ASEAN economies to imported oil, gas, and coal. Geopolitical conflicts, supply disruptions, and fluctuating fuel prices continue to drive up electricity costs, worsen inflation, and place additional burdens on already climate-vulnerable populations.
In 2025 alone, devastating typhoons and floods across Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam killed more than a thousand individuals and displaced more than two million others. Climate-vulnerable ASEAN countries are already paying the price of a warming planet, yet the region remains deeply dependent on fossil fuels.
According to the ASEAN Centre for Energy, coal still accounts for 37% of ASEAN’s electricity generation. Indonesia remains 67% dependent on coal, the Philippines 63%, Vietnam 49%, and Malaysia 43%.
ASEAN leaders discussed emergency petroleum sharing arrangements and the continued role of natural gas in the region’s energy mix. “Continuing to expand liquefied natural gas (LNG) and other fossil fuel infrastructure in the name of ‘energy security’ risks deepening ASEAN’s dependence on volatile and polluting energy systems at a time when the region urgently needs a faster and more decisive shift toward renewable energy,” said Sabado.
“There is no real energy security on imported fuels, volatile global markets, and extractive systems that leave ordinary people carrying the burden of pollution, disasters, and rising costs of living,” Sabado added. “Climate justice means ending fossil fuel dependence in ASEAN and building a renewable energy future that is people-centered, people-powered, and truly resilient.”
Media contact:
Leovy Ramirez (she/her)
Communications Officer
People of Asia for Climate Solutions
+639156618382