The 15th Asia Clean Energy Forum (ACEF) kicks off today with deep-dive workshops in the afternoon. ACEF’s Week-at-a-Glance presents varied topics that are consistent with this year’s theme, Cross-sectoral Innovations for a Sustainable Future. You may have already enlisted in your preferred tracks and sessions through the ACEF Newsletter. There are also side events organized by ADB and our partners that run after the main forum.
At the Opening Plenary, Global Energy Challenges and the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on 16 June, VPKM Bambang Susantono will deliver the Introductory Remarks while ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa and IEA Executive Director, Fatih Birol are the Keynote speakers. A panel discussion will follow that features Sri Lanka Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Power & Energy, Wasantha Perera; International Solar Alliance Director-General, Upendra Tripathy; and, IEA Acting Deputy Executive Director, Dave Turk. ADB will be represented at the panel by SDCC DG, Woochong Um.
The 15th ACEF kept its multisectoral bent as it continues to demonstrate the interface of energy with other sectors and themes. In the spotlight this year are gender, climate resilience, fragile states, the energy transition and the COVID-19 pandemic, and the various ways it has affected people, economies, and the future.ACEF will close on 19 June with a discussion of exactly what comes next after the pandemic and how the world must pull itself together. And the energy sector is up to the task. To this, the pandemic could have given humanity the opportunity to reflect because it has brought to the fore values and principles that have been put aside. The pandemic has given humanity a chance to cleanse itself and perhaps reboot; to get rid of the old, inefficient, and wasteful ways and start anew. And humanity should make good use of this chance. Nature can always persist.