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7. Affordable and clean energy
Energy is central to nearly every major challenge and opportunity the world faces today. Be it for jobs, security, climate change, food production or increasing incomes, access to energy for all is essential. Ensuring access to affordable, reliable and modern energy for all has come one step closer due to recent progress in electrification, particularly in LDCs, and improvements in industrial energy efficiency. However, national priorities and policy ambitions still need to be strengthened to put the world on track to meet the energy targets for 2030.
Read our stories to learn more about SDG Goal 7: Affordable and clean energy
SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy is supported by Energy Development Corporation
News
The sector requires US$6.2 trillion by 2060 under Asean’s coordinated transition scenario, but high financing costs threaten progress, found a new study by the Asean Centre for Energy.
Energy
Singapore sets Southeast Asia’s first binding data centre rules, building demand for clean energy
After a 2019 pause and two rounds of limited tenders, Singapore joins China, Germany and Japan in regulating data centre efficiency by law, while making operators' clean energy pledges binding.
Countries embrace clean energy but resist cutting fossil fuel production. That fault line is now shaping the UN's first transition roadmap, due at COP31 in November.
Carbon & Climate
India’s small steelmakers have no easy fix to go green
Smaller firms make 40 per cent of India’s steel and are the backbone of cities like Raipur. Some are exploring solar power, but face big constraints to make a deeper shift from coal.
Opinion
While there is no single prescription for energy security, strengthening 'response capacity,' such as by establishing stockpiles, substituting sources, and diversifying suppliers, is essential. The point is not to eliminate vulnerabilities altogether, but to ensure that there are options when disruption arrives.
Policy & Finance
Warming Himalayas: Nepal’s climate justice test
Nepal’s devastating Himalayan floods have exposed the human and economic cost of a warming region, reviving demand for climate justice.
Carbon & Climate
What it means for global warming to exceed 1.5°C
A sobering new report from the United Nations Environment Programme warns that even if governments deliver on all their existing climate pledges, warming could reach 1.8°C later this century. That means humanity must pivot from simply containing global warming to finding ways to reverse it.
Policy & Finance
For Southeast Asia, the AI race is about access, not supremacy
The region’s stake in AI is not simply which great power builds the most capable model. The key is to ensure that AI remains affordable, locally relevant, continuously available and politically accessible.
Policy & Finance
War and climate
Videos
Carbon & Climate
Leading the transition in a fragmented world
Singapore’s Jeffrey Siow discusses how Asia can turn climate ambition into action and sustain momentum towards resilient, low-carbon growth as global cooperation comes under strain.
Speakers at Unlocking capital for sustainability Indonesia 2026 discuss how Indonesia can power its mineral boom without compromising climate goals or community trust
As Jakarta tightens carbon rules and launches its national registry, speakers at Unlocking capital for sustainability Indonesia 2026 discuss this critical question.
In this second episode of Eco-Business’s Resilience podcast series, Singapore's Senior Minister of State Janil Puthucheary and youth sustainability advocate Man Jing Kong dives into what resilience means for the city-state with Jessica Cheam. Watch as they discuss everything from climate adaptation to mental health and building public trust as an AI-driven economy reshapes daily life.
Podcasts
In this second episode of Eco-Business’s Resilience podcast series, Singapore's Senior Minister of State Janil Puthucheary and youth sustainability advocate Man Jing Kong dives into what resilience means for the city-state with Jessica Cheam. Watch as they discuss everything from climate adaptation to mental health and building public trust as an AI-driven economy reshapes daily life.
Energy
Geothermal is no longer an underdog technology, but a strategic advantage for the Philippines
EB Studio
Critical to the country’s energy security in the 1970s, geothermal is now re-emerging as the Philippines’ biggest clean energy advantage at a time when countries are seeking reliable, round-the-clock renewable power, says Francis Giles B. Puno, president and chief operating officer of First Gen Corporation.
Energy
De-risking offshore wind could put Philippines ahead in clean energy race: GWEC’s Ann Francisco
Government must call on development finance institutions to tap on risk management tools to make the capital-intensive technology more investible, Global Wind Energy Council’s Ann Margret Francisco tells the EB Podcast.
In the latest episode of the Climate Tech in Asia series, we speak to Breakthrough Energy and Green COP about what the shifting geopolitical landscape means for the climate tech ecosystem in Asia.
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