Southeast Asia now faces massive fossil gas expansion. This not only perpetuates dependence on dirty energy and sacrifices climate ambitions but also worsens energy insecurity and hinders the region’s shift to clean, renewable energy — causing health hazards and loss of livelihoods to local communities as much as it threatens the rich marine biodiversity that lies within the region.
The surge of gas-fired power plants comes with the development of LNG import terminals.
106.87 mtpa
Total import capacity of LNG expansion
53 LNG import terminal projects
are currently proposed or being built in the region, making Southeast Asia a fossil gas and LNG hub
In the last decade, Southeast Asia confronted the major challenge of coal expansion, which, at the time, accounted for 15% of the total coal power in the global pipeline. Resistance to coal gained major wins, particularly in the Philippines, Vietnam, and, to some extent, Indonesia, and Thailand.
Replacing coal in Southeast Asia created the opportunity to move towards mainly renewable energy resources. However, a new detour is undermining this trajectory — fossil gas. Fossil gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) are falsely touted as a clean alternative to coal.
Fossil gas emits methane, which leaks into the atmosphere at every stage of its life. Methane traps heat in the atmosphere far more effectively than carbon dioxide if viewed in over 10- to 20-year time scales.