Southeast Asia deepening dependence on fossil fuels, think tank warns
Al Jazeera
ASEAN’s 10 members met the entirety of region’s rise in electricity demand last year through fossil fuels, report says.
Southeast Asia is at risk of deepening its dependence on fossil fuels as it tries to meet surging demand for electricity, an environmental think tank has warned.
The 10 nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) met the entirety of the region’s 3.6 percent rise in electricity demand last year through fossil fuels, the United Kingdom-based think tank Ember said in a report released on Tuesday.
ASEAN’s share of energy generated by renewables, meanwhile, fell to 26 percent compared with 28 percent in 2022 amid a decline in hydropower production due to droughts and other extreme events, the report said.
Carbon emissions grew by 6.6 percent last year, representing an additional 44 million tonnes of CO2 in the atmosphere, according to the report.
Top coal polluters included Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines, while Singapore and Thailand’s emissions mostly came from natural gas, according to the report.
