ASEAN Secretary-General Backs Energy Collaboration with Canada

ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn has affirmed his support for collaboration with Canada to optimise the energy transition and achieve energy security in Southeast Asia. “With the strengths of both, real opportunities will emerge to advance energy security and decarbonisation together as economies and prosperity grow,” Kao said during the ASEAN-Canada strategic dialogue on energy security in Jakarta on Tuesday. He stated that ASEAN is one of the most dynamic markets for energy investment and innovation in the world, given that the region’s growing economic strength will be accompanied by increasingly high energy demand. Meanwhile, Canada has advantages in conventional and clean energy such as oil and gas, LNG, hydrogen, critical minerals, as well as clean energy and electricity innovation, the ASEAN Secretary-General said. The Secretary-General noted that energy security and the renewable energy transition are becoming increasingly urgent amid the conflict in the Middle East, which has resulted in supply chain disruptions and shocks in international markets. To achieve energy security, ASEAN needs to diversify its energy sources, supply chains, and technologies, by strengthening partnerships both among fellow ASEAN member states and with external partners, he said. Moreover, the comprehensive effort to realise energy security and the energy transition through various approaches “requires investment that cannot be undertaken by just one country alone”. Kao also confirmed that ASEAN and Canada have established cooperation in the energy transition, including industrial decarbonisation and carbon capture and storage. “Our opportunity now is not only to undertake the energy transition, but to ensure that the region’s energy remains secure, affordable, reliable, and increasingly sustainable,” Kao concluded. On the same occasion, Weldon Epp, Assistant Deputy Minister for Indo-Pacific Affairs at Global Affairs Canada, mentioned that his side has contributed millions of dollars to support the energy transition in ASEAN. Through the ASEAN-Canada Trust Fund, Canada has contributed to a project related to carbon capture and utilisation valued at 1.38 million Canadian dollars together with the ASEAN Centre for Energy. Meanwhile, a contribution of 2 million Canadian dollars has also been provided for the Regional Connectivity Fund (RCF), a joint initiative with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to ensure the sustainability of power grid system projects in ASEAN, he said.