SE Asia’s Energy Transition Is Moving From Targets to Delivery: Tara Climate Foundation Report

SINGAPORE, August 24, 2026 : Southeast Asia’s clean energy transition is entering a more practical phase, with governments, communities, businesses and financial institutions moving from high-level climate ambition towards the harder work of market design, grid readiness, clean power access and industrial decarbonisation, according to Tara Climate Foundation’s Annual Report 2025.

The report, titled “Sustaining Progress in Asia’s Energy Transition”, highlights 2025 as a year of resilience for Asia’s energy transition despite a challenging global climate backdrop. Across Tara’s focus geographies, 35 GW of renewable energy capacity was added in 2025, solar capacity grew by 16%, wind capacity grew by 11%, and four national power development plans were updated across Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan and Indonesia.

For Southeast Asia, the report points to a defining shift: renewable energy is no longer being framed only as a climate imperative, but as a foundation for energy security, economic competitiveness, community development and industrial strategy.

Tara Climate Foundation, headquartered in Singapore, describes itself as an Asia-based philanthropic organisation focused on accelerating progress on the region’s most urgent climate challenges. It works with local communities, donors, corporates and governments to advance a people-centred energy transition, using grants, convening and local on-the-ground knowledge.

In 2025, Tara worked with 381 active partners across 12 geographies, supported by a team of more than 60 people, and provided US$69.4 million in grants.

Indonesia Moves Towards Buildable Renewable Plans

Indonesia features prominently in the report as one of the key Southeast Asian markets where clean energy ambition is being converted into more specific investment and planning signals.

The updated Electricity Supply Business Plan for 2025 to 2034 targeted 24 GW of solar and wind by 2034, roughly five times the scale envisioned in the previous plan, alongside more than 10 GW of energy storage. The report says this gave developers, utilities and financiers greater clarity on sequencing, grid requirements and investment priorities beyond 2030. Tara partners, including the Institute for Essential Services Reform, supported the process through scenario analysis and modelling on generation mix, grid strengthening and power system flexibility.

Indonesia also made a national commitment in 2025 to deploy 100 GW of solar by 2035. Tara partners contributed analysis that framed solar expansion within a broader development narrative, highlighting Indonesia’s financially viable renewable energy potential of 333 GW. Subsequent research found that scaling community-led decentralised solar could contribute up to IDR112.4 trillion to regional GDP and create around 118,000 green jobs within the programme’s first five years.

This matters for CarbonWire readers because the Indonesian case shows how solar can be positioned not only as clean generation, but as regional economic policy.

Philippines Auctions Show the Power of Market Design

The Philippines emerged as one of Southeast Asia’s clearest examples of how competitive procurement can translate renewable ambition into awarded capacity.

According to the report, the country held two Green Energy Auction rounds in 2025 that targeted 15.1 GW of additional renewable energy capacity and awarded 16.9 GW across solar, onshore wind and other energy sources. The Department of Energy also launched GEA-5, targeting 3.3 GW of offshore wind, with awards expected in 2027.

Tara partners, including the Global Wind Energy Council and the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities, contributed technical input on auction and tariff design to support bankability. The report notes that auction awards remain only a milestone; converting them into operating projects will depend on grid and port readiness, financing and stable implementation.

The lesson is clear: Southeast Asia’s renewable energy targets will only be credible if procurement systems, tariffs, grid access and finance structures are strong enough to turn awarded capacity into actual generation.

Malaysia Links Clean Energy With Energy Access

In Malaysia, the report highlights both national planning and community-level clean power access. The 13th Malaysia Plan paired higher renewable ambitions with electricity market reforms and support for corporate and community-based procurement.

At the same time, the Sabah Renewable Energy Rural Electrification Consortium, facilitated by Forever Sabah, supported a commitment to fully fund village mini-grids through public grants. The report says this created a state-endorsed roadmap to expand clean power access in Sabah, where 72% of unelectrified Malaysians live.

The Sabah RE2 Roadmap aims to expand electricity access through more than 200 community-based renewable energy mini-grids. In Pitas Laut, a community installed a 30 kWp solar PV mini-grid, giving all 20 households and community buildings reliable 24/7 electricity, replacing diesel generators and supporting local businesses and turtle conservation.

For Southeast Asia, this is a critical reminder that the energy transition is not only about gigawatts. It is also about reliability, access and community ownership.

Just Transition Becomes More Concrete

The report places strong emphasis on a people-centred transition. It says new multi-stakeholder platforms supporting community voices formed in South Korea, Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia, including in Philippine offshore wind and Indonesian nickel regions.

In the Philippines, Tara partners set up multi-stakeholder platforms in two provinces to strengthen benefit-sharing and environmental safeguards in offshore wind development. In Thailand, the Just Transitions Incubator launched Bangkok Climate Action Week, engaging more than 77,000 participants across 270-plus events and catalysing more than 20 partnerships.

Across Southeast Asia, Tara also co-founded the Just Energy Transition Community with the Philanthropy Asia Alliance, convening global and regional funders to support clean energy initiatives that centre people and livelihoods.

The report’s message is that climate ambition will not hold unless the people most affected by energy projects are included in how those projects are planned, built and governed.

Industrial Decarbonisation Takes Shape in Indonesia

Southeast Asia’s energy transition is also becoming an industrial transition. In Indonesia, the National Development Planning Agency launched the country’s first Nickel Industry Decarbonisation Roadmap, aiming to cut sector emissions by 81% by 2045 through energy efficiency, fuel switching and greater use of renewable power. The Ministry of Industry also launched an interim Industrial Decarbonisation Roadmap covering nine energy-intensive sub-sectors, from cement and steel to textiles and food and beverages, to guide industry towards net zero by 2050.

With technical support from Tara partners, the Ministry of Industry identified four Net-Zero Industrial Precinct pilot sites where heavy industry could be clustered around shared renewable power, clean heat and low-carbon technologies.

This is particularly important because Indonesia’s nickel sector is central to global clean-energy supply chains. A credible decarbonisation pathway could strengthen both climate outcomes and long-term industrial competitiveness.

Sustainable Finance Builds the Rules of the Transition

The report also highlights major progress in sustainable finance across ASEAN. Version 4 of the ASEAN Taxonomy was published in 2025 and is now referenced in country taxonomies in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, establishing a common regional foundation for taxonomy development.

Tara partner the Sustainable Finance Institute of Asia provides administrative and technical expertise for the ASEAN Taxonomy Board, supporting the complex process of translating shared principles into a workable common reference. The report notes that common definitions can reduce fragmentation, lower greenwashing risk and help cross-border capital identify credible green and transition investments.

This is one of the most important Southeast Asian developments in the report. Clean energy deployment requires capital, and capital requires rules investors can trust.

The Southeast Asia Takeaway

Tara’s 2025 report shows that Southeast Asia’s energy transition is no longer defined only by national targets. It is increasingly defined by implementation architecture: auctions, PPAs, taxonomies, mini-grids, industrial roadmaps, community platforms, storage planning and corporate procurement.

The region’s progress remains uneven. Grid readiness, financing, permitting, bankability and community consent will determine whether announced ambition becomes operating projects. But the direction is clear.

Southeast Asia is building the systems that can turn climate goals into real economy outcomes. For a region facing rising energy demand, industrial growth, climate vulnerability and the need for inclusive development, that may be the most important climate story of all.