From 18-24 September 2023, the China-ASEAN Clean Energy Week (CACEW) was successfully held in Haikou, Hainan Province, China. The 2023 CACEW is a comprehensive platform that facilitates cooperation among ASEAN+3 countries by emphasising collaboration to address the intersecting questions of economic growth and clean energy transition in the region. The 2023 CACEW is the extension of previous influential programmes on clean energy cooperation among ASEAN+3 countries, encompassing “East Asia Summit Clean Energy Forum (under East Asia Summit)”, “ASEAN+3 Clean Energy Roundtable Dialogue (under ASEAN+3)”, and “China-ASEAN Clean Energy Capacity Building Programme”. While the three platforms were conducted separately on the prior occasion, the year 2023 saw an unprecedented cooperation scale where the three programmes were facilitated under the China-ASEAN Clean Energy Week (CACEW).

Furthermore, the 2023 CACEW is a concrete step undertaken by the two regions in further strengthening their clean energy cooperation following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the establishment of ASEAN-China Clean Energy Cooperation Centre (ACCECC) on August 25, 2023. The initiative was aimed to fortify further partnerships on clean energy cooperation between ASEAN and China. The 2023 CACEW itself was organised by the National Energy Administration of China, People’s Government of Hainan Province, China and the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources of Indonesia. The event was also co-organised by China Renewable Energy Engineering Institute and ASEAN Centre for Energy. Under the compelling theme of “For a Shared Future: Across the Ocean and Abreast into Prosperity”, the 2023 brought together clean energy leaders, experts, research institutes and organisations to convene and strategise for clean energy development in the regions.

Within the framework of CACEW, several established clean energy platforms were facilitated to bring forward and bolster clean energy development in the regions. After the special remarks of high-level representatives from both ASEAN Member States and China officially commenced the event, the programme moved on to The 6th East Asia Summit Clean Energy Forum (EAS CEF). The EAS CEF is a regional platform to address clean energy development and cooperation in East Asia that has been established since 2014. The 6th EAS CEF was the first occasion where the summit was conducted under the 2023 China-ASEAN Clean Energy Week framework. The programme was held on September 19-20, 2023. It consisted of keynote speeches from leading research institutes and organisations within the ASEAN-China clean energy cooperation and four subforums with their respective topics and panel discussions. During the EAS CEF, the themes discussed within the subforums were sustainable hydropower development, offshore wind development, green investment, and power trade and consumption.

The 6th ASEAN+3 (China, Japan, and Republic of Korea) Clean Energy Roundtable Dialogue is an intergovernmental platform providing an avenue for ASEAN+3 energy authorities to strengthen cooperation in clean energy transition. Under the 2023 CACEW, The 6th ASEAN+3 Clean Energy Roundtable Dialogue adopted the “Decentralised Power System Development and Consumption” theme. It explored the best practices, policy recommendations, and cooperation initiatives among the regions’ clean energy leaders. The fruitful discussions garnered during the roundtable dialogue emphasised the necessity of diversifying energy supply and increasing renewable energy share in bolstering regional energy transition. Furthermore, the discussants commend the best practices of China and the Republic of Korea in their applications of decentralised energy systems. The roundtable dialogue also resulted in several recommendations: to address grid connection to leverage higher RE penetration and ramp up the utilisation of decentralised RE technologies through knowledge sharing.

While the previous forums focused on the participation of energy authorities and government officials, the 2023 CACEW also carried out the ASEAN-China Clean Energy Enterprise Dialogue, The 8th Lancang-Mekong River Power Enterprise Summit, as well as ASEAN-China Clean Energy Think Tank Dialogue. These forums provided platforms for the private sectors and research institutes to contribute to regional clean energy cooperation. The series of activities within the 2023 CACEW were closed with the China-ASEAN Clean Energy Capacity Building programme-2023: Clean Energy Leader Exchange Programme held on 21-24 September 2023. This capacity-building programme was posed to provide the participants with comprehensive knowledge sharing based on the experiences of China.

The China-ASEAN Capacity Building Programme presented an opportunity to disseminate insights from Chinese energy experts and extensive field experience from site visits to the clean energy projects location. Noting the momentum of exploring the ASEAN offshore wind potentials and the release of ASEAN Offshore Wind Development Roadmap during the EAS CEF event, the capacity-building programme focused on China’s offshore wind development trajectory. The combined presentations from various offshore wind experts in China and immersive site-visit activity to the onshore substation of the Xiangshan Offshore Wind Farm were hoped to meaningfully contribute to the knowledge gained during the entirety of 2023 CACEW, specifically for the successful offshore wind development in ASEAN.