Dear IEEFA Community,

The IEEFA Energy Finance Summit 2026, held in Bangkok as part of Bangkok Climate Action Week, brought together approx. 180 attendees from government, finance, industry, and civil society to discuss the opportunities and challenges shaping Asia’s energy transition.

The shift to clean energy is one of Asia’s greatest economic opportunities. Realizing that opportunity requires investment in the systems that will support this transition while keeping electricity affordable, reliable, and secure.

Discussions at the summit highlighted three priorities:

• Reducing exposure to fossil fuel imports. Southeast Asian economies remain vulnerable to volatile global fuel markets and rising import costs. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the region’s fossil fuel import bill under current policies could rise from USD82 billion in 2024 to USD245 billion by 2035, strengthening the case for domestically generated renewable electricity.

• Investing in the power system alongside renewable generation. Grids, storage, and system flexibility must keep pace with renewable energy deployment to maintain reliable electricity supplies as demand grows. 

• Creating the conditions for investment. Sustainable finance taxonomies, green labels, and disclosure standards are important as guardrails for emerging low-carbon economies, but they cannot create investable projects on their own. Effective policy, system-level planning, and concessional finance are the first-order solutions needed to mobilize private investment.

Our second energy finance conference dedicated to Asia explored these issues from a range of perspectives. The sessions prompted questions and discussion, with positive feedback from participants.

We look forward to continuing this dialogue and working with partners across the region to address the policy, financing, and power system challenges discussed in Bangkok. Through ongoing research, analysis, and engagement, we will continue to examine practical ways to support Asia’s clean energy transition.

Thank you to our speakers, participants, partners, and funders for contributing their time, expertise, and support.

Warm regards,

Paige Nguyen, Director, Asia & Vibhuti Garg, Director, South Asia
Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis

Fossil fuel volatility is exposing the economic risks of import dependence across Asia. The panel explored how India, Pakistan, and Thailand are responding, and why expanding renewable energy must go hand in hand with investment in grids, storage, and policy reform.

• India: Rapid solar growth must be matched by transmission infrastructure and more resilient supply chains. Solar plants can be built quickly, but grid development takes longer.
• Pakistan: Low-cost solar is reducing reliance on imported liquefied natural gas (LNG), raising questions about existing contracts and underutilized gas infrastructure. Storage and more flexible electricity pricing will be important to managing demand as solar output falls after sunset.
• Thailand: Despite rising LNG costs, long-term gas commitments and limited market transparency constrain the shift to renewables. Panelists called for greater transparency in energy planning and contracts, and a more open electricity market.

The discussion underscored a shared challenge: renewable deployment is moving faster than the infrastructure and market reforms needed to support it.

Renewable generation is increasingly bankable across Asia, but investment in the grids and storage needed to support it continues to lag. The panel explored how public finance, development banks, and private capital can help close this gap, drawing on experiences across Asia.

• Unlike renewable generation backed by long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs), grid and storage projects often lack predictable revenue streams. Better contracts and clearer regulations could help make these investments more attractive. 
• Concessional finance and guarantees can help manage project risks and unlock investment in infrastructure that supports renewable energy integration.
• India’s procurement-led storage tenders and China’s scale and coordinated planning offer examples of approaches to developing infrastructure alongside renewable generation.

The discussion highlighted that the main barrier to grid and storage investment is no longer technology cost, but the absence of stable, predictable revenue models.

Sustainable finance taxonomies and disclosure standards have laid important foundations, but they have not mobilized capital at the scale needed for decarbonization. The discussion explored how governments and financial institutions can work together to make clean energy projects more investable.

• Governments need to shape energy systems through effective planning and market reforms, while financial institutions help mobilize capital. Standards alone cannot deliver this shift.
• Thailand’s rooftop solar lending experience highlighted the gap between perceived and actual risks. Reported default rates of 0–2% suggest scope for banks to expand financing for distributed solar.
• Investors look for tangible financial incentives and lower project risks. Speakers highlighted guarantees, direct PPAs, and aggregated rooftop solar portfolios as ways to attract investment and broaden access to finance.

The session concluded that climate finance would need to move beyond green labels and broad commitments towards lowering financing costs, expanding access to capital, and making clean energy projects more attractive to investors. 

IEEFA is a global independent think tank examining the market, financial, and policy conditions shaping the energy transition. Learn more at ieefa.org