Tuesday, 8 September 2026 – The ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE), with support from the World Bank, conducted the 2nd Consultation Forum for the Regional Strategic Environmental and Social Assessment (SESA) Study. The event was implemented as part of the Clean Energy and Power Trade Development in Southeast Asia Project under the Multi-Phase Programmatic Approach for Accelerating Sustainable Energy Transition (MPA ASET) Project. The online forum brought together representatives from ASEAN Member States, financial institutions, development partners, civil society organisations, environmental and social practitioners, and other stakeholders to review the draft findings and recommendations. The forum was facilitated by the consultants from the CIERA Group, in association with PT Hatfield Indonesia, DDA International Consulting, and Novirianti & Partners.
The SESA assesses environmental and social risks, impacts, and opportunities associated with ACE's technical assistance programme areas and analyses the institutional, legal, and regulatory context across ASEAN Member States. The forum followed the first virtual consultation forum held on 2 July 2026, during which stakeholders discussed the scope and initial findings of the study. The second consultation provided an opportunity to review the more developed findings and recommendations and identify areas requiring further refinement. The event was conducted online following changes to the original in-person arrangements due to volcanic eruption conditions. Participants were able to submit questions during the presentations and provide feedback on the draft recommendations.
In his opening remarks, ACE Executive Director Dato’ Ir. Ts. Razib Dawood highlighted the need to integrate environmental and social considerations into regional energy planning and implementation as ASEAN advances its energy transition. He also encouraged stakeholders to use the consultation to identify implementation challenges, risks, opportunities, and issues requiring further consideration.
Representing the World Bank, Lead Energy Specialist Yussuf Uwamahoro noted that the SESA provides a strategic level approach to identifying environmental and socioeconomic risks and incorporating relevant considerations early in programme design. He also underlined the importance of stakeholder feedback in ensuring that the final recommendations reflect national and institutional contexts across the region.
Photo 1. Participants of the Second Consultation Forum for the Regional SESA Study
The presentation of the draft SESA highlighted that, unlike a project level Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA), the SESA operates at a higher strategic level. It assesses potential environmental and social issues associated with policies, plans, programmes, and regional energy planning rather than individual infrastructure projects. Regional initiatives such as the ASEAN Power Grid (APG) may involve cumulative and transboundary impacts and require coordination across countries, institutions, and sectors.
The study also reviewed existing legal and regulatory frameworks across all 11 ASEAN Member States (AMS) on environmental and social issues. This review is conducted to support the country gap analysis by comparing identified environmental and socioeconomic risks against existing national laws and regulations. An important limitation is that the assessment examined whether relevant laws and regulations exist and address the identified risks, rather than how effectively they are implemented, as implementation was outside the scope of the study. The consultants also stressed that the country analysis should be treated as a high-level assessment rather than a definitive country assessment. It relied primarily on publicly available information and machine assisted analysis, without detailed country visits or extensive country level stakeholder engagement.
Photo 2. Barry Dalal Clayton as the Team Leader from the CIERA Group presenting the results of machine-assisted analysis on 11 AMS Laws/Regulations on environmental and socio-economic topics.
The study assessed environmental and social risks across all seven (7) ACE Programme Areas (PAs) under MPA ASET. Particular attention was given to the APG, where environmental and social risks are considered as ‘High’ in comparison to the other Programme Areas, because they can involve large scale transmission infrastructure across multiple locations and jurisdictions. The study identified 16 environmental risks and 21 social risks, then considered how these risks relate to each Programme Area.
The assessment considered issues including biodiversity and habitat impacts, land acquisition and resettlement, Indigenous Peoples and vulnerable groups, labour and community health and safety, gender related risks, access to environmental and socioeconomic data, and the distribution of benefits from energy infrastructure.
Participants discussed the need for approaches that can address differences among national regulatory systems while supporting more consistent treatment of environmental and social risks.
Photo 3. Mr. Miles Scott-Brown as the Environmental Specialist from the CIERA Group presented the level of E&S risks across 7 PAs under the MPA ASET project.
The country gap analysis compared the environmental and socioeconomic risks identified against the existing legal and regulatory frameworks of all 11 AMS. The purpose was to determine whether national laws and regulations have adequately addressed each identified risk. The analysis used three ratings: no gap, partial gap, and significant gap.
The assessment found that frameworks generally address established issues such as air and water quality, labour rights, and occupational health and safety. Wider gaps were identified in areas including introduction of invasive species, cumulative and transboundary impacts, inaccessible environmental and socioeconomic data, inequitable benefit sharing from large infrastructure projects, uncertain long term employment impacts, workforce and tension with local communities, and increased pressures on public services and infrastructure. The analysis assessed the coverage of national laws and regulations rather than their implementation and therefore provides a high-level regional comparison rather than a detailed assessment of individual countries.
Photo 4. Jozefina Cutura as the Social Specialist from the Novirianti & Partners presented the gap analysis matrix by country in legal and regulatory frameworks on environmental risks.
The draft recommendations presented during the forum included measures to strengthen ACE's institutional arrangements for managing environmental and social risks, establish clearer approaches to environmental, social and gender considerations, introduce earlier risk screening for regional energy initiatives, strengthen data collection and sharing, and expand technical capacity within ACE and relevant ASEAN mechanisms.
ACE published the Draft Regional SESA Report for public feedback until 30 September 2026, allowing stakeholders additional time to review the assessment and submit comments that can inform its finalisation.
The feedback from the second consultation, together with written submissions received during the disclosure period, will support further refinement of the assessment and its recommendations for integrating environmental and social considerations into ASEAN's regional energy programmes.
For more details please visit:
https://go.aseanenergy.org/SESA-Public-Disclosure
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