RECCESSARY’s “ASEAN Weekly” highlights Southeast Asia’s new energy and carbon market updates. (Image: RECCESSARY)
This week in ASEAN, the Philippines is facing calls to revise biomass auction pricing to reflect feedstock and logistics costs, while the Green Fuel Forward alliance is expanding efforts to accelerate sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) adoption across Asia. Below are the key ASEAN stories from Sept. 21–27.
Philippines urged to factor fuel costs into biomass green energy auctions
The Philippine government’s decision to bring biomass back into its Green Energy Auction Program (GEAP) has raised expectations across the industry.
A local industry group recently urged the government to factor feedstock and logistics costs into auction pricing to make projects more bankable, arguing that biomass provides stable and dispatchable renewable power and therefore requires a different pricing mechanism from wind and solar. Read more here
Green Fuel Forward expands alliance to support SAF adoption in Asia
Green Fuel Forward (GFF), an initiative launched by GenZero and the World Economic Forum (WEF) in May 2025 to support demand for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), has expanded its partnership structure and added new members as it moves into its next phase of market development. Read more here
What can Southeast Asia learn from China’s AI-powered renewables?
The region must strengthen grids and clean energy capacity to incorporate AI for efficiency, experts say. But in China, the technology is no silver bullet for decarbonising energy systems. Read more here
El Niño: Indonesia fire emissions in 2026 ‘on track’ to match record for this century
Wildfires currently burning large swathes of land in Indonesia are on track to produce emissions on a par with the country’s most-intense fire season this century, according to experts.
Data from the Global Fire Emissions Database reveals that, as of 7 September, fires in Indonesia produced 76m tonnes of carbon (MtC) in 2026. This puts 2026 on the same trajectory as 2015, when fires burned 2.6m hectares of land across the country and generated a total of 333MtC. Read more here
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Red sun on the sky covered by smoke haze in Kalimantan. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
Ride-hailing apps offer greener choices, so why aren’t users taking them?
Ride-hailing apps help us manage almost every daily task—from commuting and dining to grocery shopping—all from our smartphones. But with millions of ride-hailing drivers taking to the roads every day, this convenience also contributes to air pollution.
To offset this, platforms such as Gojek and Grab have introduced various green initiatives, including promoting electric vehicles, offering carbon-neutral rides, and encouraging users to support carbon-offset programs. Yet even when such features are available in the apps for users to choose, users’ willingness to adopt these green options remains stagnant. Read more here
How biodiversity corridor payments boost household incomes in Vietnam’s mountains
Conservationists say connecting existing protected areas through biodiversity corridors is vital in many landscapes to prevent further loss of species and habitats. Yet the households living inside conservation areas often face stark financial tradeoffs associated with lost access to resources, sometimes making new designations controversial.
A recent study from the rugged mountains of central Vietnam, however, suggests that biodiversity corridors can bring significant economic benefits to the households who live inside them. Read more here
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