The World Bank has released a new report, Green Horizon: East Asia’s Sustainable Energy Future, which presents actionable strategies for modernizing and upgrading the region’s energy systems. The report focuses on aligning power and industrial sectors to sustain long-term growth, create jobs, and enhance economic competitiveness across East Asia. It serves as a follow-up to the 2010 report, Winds of Change: East Asia’s Sustainable Energy Future.
In 2023, East Asia was responsible for 42 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and remained the world’s largest coal consumer. China, Indonesia, and Viet Nam account for 80 percent of the region’s emissions and 88 percent of coal use, with power and industrial sectors together contributing 75–87 percent of energy-related emissions. The report emphasizes that without timely intervention, continued coal dependence and rising energy demand could jeopardize the region’s development and environmental goals, making decarbonization of both sectors essential.
Sudeshna Banerjee, World Bank Regional Practice Director for Infrastructure in East Asia and the Pacific, highlighted that transforming the power and industrial sectors is key to strengthening energy security, boosting competitiveness, and generating jobs and market opportunities. The report estimates that achieving decarbonization by mid-century will require over $10 trillion in investment—$1.7 trillion for industry and $9 trillion for power generation and transmission. Early adoption of energy efficiency measures and electrification could achieve 65 percent of emissions reductions at only 20 percent of the total projected cost, provided enabling policies are in place.
The report identifies five priority actions: scaling up renewable energy through competitive auctions and distributed generation; modernizing grids to integrate variable renewables and support electrification; improving industrial energy efficiency and electrifying production; investing in innovation for hard-to-abate sectors such as green hydrogen and carbon capture, utilization, and storage; and mobilizing private capital via blended finance, carbon markets, and supportive regulation.
Country-specific reforms are also critical. China could focus on integrating renewable energy into grids and adopting advanced technologies, Indonesia could implement transparent renewable energy auctions and expand distributed generation, and Viet Nam could enhance transmission infrastructure and improve power purchase agreements to attract private investment. These measures not only reduce emissions but also provide opportunities to modernize production systems, strengthen energy security, and generate new jobs in clean energy, advanced manufacturing, and emerging green industries across East Asia.
