Eurasia Review
14 July 2016
- RSIS
- Media Mentions
- Climate Change and Renewable Energy: Mitigation or Vulnerability? – Analysis
Climate Change and Renewable Energy: Mitigation or Vulnerability? – Analysis
Renewable energy is often seen to provide relief to climate change. However, renewable energy is at the same time vulnerable to climate change. As the region is set to meet its renewable energy targets in the coming years, it is important therefore to ensure that the development of renewable infrastructure is infused with climate change adaptation thinking.
Renewable energy is set to grow in Southeast Asia as countries in the region are working towards closing the massive gaps between renewables current installed capacities and targets to be achieved within 10 to 15 years’ time. While renewable energy is often regarded as an important element in climate change mitigation measures, its vulnerability to climate impacts itself seems to have received less attention.
The effects of climate change in Southeast Asia have been observed, among others, in the rise of heavy precipitation events in the Mekong River Basin region between 1900 and 2005, the Mekong floods in 2000, and droughts in Laos and Vietnam in 1997 and 1998. The concern over renewable energy’s susceptibility to climate change is not unfounded as the sources of some types of renewable energy, notably hydropower, solar photovoltaic (PV) power, and wind power, are dependent and affected by climate conditions.
… Margareth Sembiring is a Senior Analyst at the Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
NTS Centre / Online
Last updated on 15/07/2016
