After attending the Asia CleanEnergy Forum 2026 in Manila, I returned home with a key message that energy transition in Asia-Pacific onward is beyond the renewable energy, but it is about building energy systems which are resilient, secure, inclusive and intelligent. The pre-forum event, with full rooms and lively discussions, was highlighted innovative and strategies of more than 25 ADB projects lying in cross-sectoral and how clean energy investments are being translated into real impact for communities, economies, and power systems on the ground.
Technology matters but technology alone is not enough
What is more interesting across the sessions was to learn from case studies, penal discussions from diverse speakers across Asia-pacific countries. Digitalization emerged as a double-edged opportunity. AI, smart grids, data systems, and digital tools can improve forecasting, efficiency, and system management. In parallel, speakers emphasized if digital tools are introduced without proper governance, affordability, cybersecurity, or a focus on users, they can increase the gap between advanced systems and communities that still lack basic access. Significantly, digitalization should be viewed as a tool that can help rather than an end goal. In this sense, digitalization should support resilience, transparency, and better service delivery, but it falls short when it is not connected to social realities.
Inclusion and resilience shall not be a tick-box exercise at the very end
The forum’s thematic track on inclusion reflected equity, social inclusion, community-centered planning from different landscapes and speakers from CSO, researchers, academia and government. The conversations focused on seeing decarbonization as a limited technical exercise: social inclusion, digital tools, greater grid infrastructure, diverse energy supply, and regional collaboration must all go together. This broad framing reflects the reality facing by many countries in Asia and the Pacific, where energy insecurity, uneven access, and climate risks are all converging at once. ACEF 2026 positioned clean energy not as a stand-alone sector, but as part of a larger development agenda.
Furthermore, resilience is becoming as important as ambition. Grid development, regional interconnection and security emphasized the vulnerability of catastrophic weather, geopolitical disturbance and increased demand. Therefore, it is recognized that resilience cannot be built project by project but it is essential to coordinated planning, long-term financing and interconnectivity across borders and sectors. Then, resilience is not only about enduring shocks, but it is about creating energy systems able to adapt and recover while still serving people.
Key takeaways and inspiration
While delve deep workshop on policies, investment, digitalization, and AI acceleration are essential and broaden my perspectives in clean energy sectors, I still passionate and ignited by inclusion, equity and community engagement discussion and case studies. Energy transition can still reinforce exclusion if language barriers, literacy gaps, land rights, indigenous rights, or economic agency are being ignored. One phrase stay with me is "Inclusion is the architecture, not the decoration." Its notion captures the heart of a just transition. Participation is not meaningful if it happens after decisions are already made, and a crowded consultation room does not necessarily mean people have truly been heard.
Another insight from the forum was lesson-learnt capturing practices connected with energy access with daily services and livelihood, such as solar PV installed in schools, hospitals, and cold storage. What crucial is community-centered planning in the whole process from design to implementation, where communities are treated as co-designers and co-users, not just beneficiaries. The message for both practitioners and policymakers may be the transition from delivery to 5 core principles: co-design, co-enable, could use, co-emerge and co-sustain.
If there is one line to summarize my momentum for this forum, I would say, energy transition should not be done for communities, but with communities. Though this idea may seem simple, it signifies on how policies are drafted, how participation is organized, how initiatives are funded, and how success is determined. Future of renewable energy in Asia-pacific shall be formed not only by megawatts, grids, and technology, but also by fairness, trust, and the capacity to involve people in decisions that impact their lives.
Technology matters but technology alone is not enough
What is more interesting across the sessions was to learn from case studies, penal discussions from diverse speakers across Asia-pacific countries. Digitalization emerged as a double-edged opportunity. AI, smart grids, data systems, and digital tools can improve forecasting, efficiency, and system management. In parallel, speakers emphasized if digital tools are introduced without proper governance, affordability, cybersecurity, or a focus on users, they can increase the gap between advanced systems and communities that still lack basic access. Significantly, digitalization should be viewed as a tool that can help rather than an end goal. In this sense, digitalization should support resilience, transparency, and better service delivery, but it falls short when it is not connected to social realities.
Inclusion and resilience shall not be a tick-box exercise at the very end
The forum’s thematic track on inclusion reflected equity, social inclusion, community-centered planning from different landscapes and speakers from CSO, researchers, academia and government. The conversations focused on seeing decarbonization as a limited technical exercise: social inclusion, digital tools, greater grid infrastructure, diverse energy supply, and regional collaboration must all go together. This broad framing reflects the reality facing by many countries in Asia and the Pacific, where energy insecurity, uneven access, and climate risks are all converging at once. ACEF 2026 positioned clean energy not as a stand-alone sector, but as part of a larger development agenda.
Furthermore, resilience is becoming as important as ambition. Grid development, regional interconnection and security emphasized the vulnerability of catastrophic weather, geopolitical disturbance and increased demand. Therefore, it is recognized that resilience cannot be built project by project but it is essential to coordinated planning, long-term financing and interconnectivity across borders and sectors. Then, resilience is not only about enduring shocks, but it is about creating energy systems able to adapt and recover while still serving people.
Key takeaways and inspiration
While delve deep workshop on policies, investment, digitalization, and AI acceleration are essential and broaden my perspectives in clean energy sectors, I still passionate and ignited by inclusion, equity and community engagement discussion and case studies. Energy transition can still reinforce exclusion if language barriers, literacy gaps, land rights, indigenous rights, or economic agency are being ignored. One phrase stay with me is "Inclusion is the architecture, not the decoration." Its notion captures the heart of a just transition. Participation is not meaningful if it happens after decisions are already made, and a crowded consultation room does not necessarily mean people have truly been heard.
Another insight from the forum was lesson-learnt capturing practices connected with energy access with daily services and livelihood, such as solar PV installed in schools, hospitals, and cold storage. What crucial is community-centered planning in the whole process from design to implementation, where communities are treated as co-designers and co-users, not just beneficiaries. The message for both practitioners and policymakers may be the transition from delivery to 5 core principles: co-design, co-enable, could use, co-emerge and co-sustain.
If there is one line to summarize my momentum for this forum, I would say, energy transition should not be done for communities, but with communities. Though this idea may seem simple, it signifies on how policies are drafted, how participation is organized, how initiatives are funded, and how success is determined. Future of renewable energy in Asia-pacific shall be formed not only by megawatts, grids, and technology, but also by fairness, trust, and the capacity to involve people in decisions that impact their lives.