Workshop Report: Meeting Environmental Objectives through Energy Sector Reforms

Our workshop proceedings report summarizes presentations and discussion of the workshop titled “Meeting Environmental Objectives through Energy Sector Reforms in Asia and the Pacific: Role of Energy Pricing Reforms and Emissions Reduction,” jointly organized by CAREC Institute and the Asian Development Bank Institute during 22-24 June 2020 through an online arrangement.

Authors of nine papers engaged with discussants and the audience to hear feedback on their research methodologies, models, findings, and subsequently refine papers in preparation for publication. Topics included assessment of water-related energy usage, electricity cross-subsidies, household demand for energy, political economy aspects of energy reforms, relationship between energy subsidies and carbon emissions, understanding gas pricing mechanism, case of top 10 CO2 emitters, impact of wholesale electricity price, feasibility of hydrogen energy, etc.

The report also includes deliberations that energy accounts for two-thirds of the total greenhouse gases in the world and energy sector reforms have a strong potential to reduce emissions and mitigate climate change. Energy sectors of most CAREC countries are heavily state-owned, subsidized and mostly based on non-renewables. Key issues of the energy sector in the region include low energy efficiency, limited regional interconnectedness of energy systems, and limited private financing. It requires further scientific discourse how financial instruments can ease these difficulties considering the climate change impact. To this end, financing renewables and green financing in general might prove a key development challenge for CAREC.