China, Japan, and S. Korea see $205 billion renewable energy market in Southeast Asia

(Webwire, Tokyo, 15 December 2020) A report from Greenpeace Japan identifies a US$205 billion opportunity for [ECA] renewable energy finance in Southeast Asia in the next ten years – 2.6 times bigger than the coal market of the past decade. From 2009 to 2019, major public banks in China, Japan, and South Korea invested only USD $9.1 billion in solar and wind, but USD $78.9 billion in coal and gas, making them top public financiers of fossil fuels globally. But this started to shift in 2020, as did national climate commitments from these G3 countries. From 2021 to 2030, Southeast Asian demand for electricity will need invested capital worth USD $125.1 billion for solar energy, USD $48.1 billion for wind energy, and USD $32.6 billion for other renewable energy sources, the report found. Additionally, Southeast Asia’s emerging green bonds market is making an international shift away from fossil fuel finance (both public and private). The report provides a rare cross-region snapshot of public and private finance. Despite being an OECD member, China blends official aid and export credit numbers in public financial disclosures in violation of OECD-DAC criteria. This makes public money harder to track. Furthermore, private finance is not widely transparent among the three countries, and analysts rely on third-party data, which is by nature incomplete.