16 ACEFs Done and Counting

The 16th Asia Clean Energy Forum closed on Friday, 18 June with the message: the time to act is now and there is strength in working together. During the ACEF Opening Plenary, President Masa urged everyone in attendance to take “bold action now and commit wholeheartedly to fighting climate change and meeting the emission-reduction goals under the Paris Agreement, while ensuring universal energy access in a region where more than 200 million people still lack access to electricity.” What this will require is a paradigm shift from what the world has been used to doing. What this will require are quick decisive actions and major changes in the way the world produces and consumes energy including avoiding fossil fuels, switching to low-carbon fuels, deploying more renewable energy, and improving energy efficiency.The transition to a low-carbon future will not be easy. It differs between countries and across ADB’s own DMCs. It will require concerted effort from all stakeholders: governments, private sector, bilateral and multilateral financial institutions to realize the singular objective of bringing net emissions to zero by 2050. It will be daunting. But there will be no task too big that collective action and resolve cannot bear and do. At his closing remarks to conclude the 16th ACEF, VPPP Ashok Lavasa highlighted the need to collaborate and work together. This has been proven to always work in the way developing partners, governments, and the private sector have tamed the markets to make clean energy technologies affordable and competitive with conventional power generation sources. This has been proven time and again as collaboration, dialogue, and working together have broken down barriers for common goals and objectives such as energy access, are achieved. The sector is faced with an unprecedented challenge, it is now called upon for collective action like no other in history.Visit the sessions missed or review other proceedings on the ACEF Virtual Platform.