Photo 1. Group photo of the on-site participants 

The ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE) successfully co-hosted the 2nd COMMITTED Project Meeting on 24-25 April 2024, together with 12 COMMITTED consortium members, at Jakarta, Indonesia. The project, Climate pOlicy assessment and Mitigation Modelling to Integrate national and global TransiTion pathways for Environmental-friendly Development (COMMITTED), is an European Union (EU)-funded project to reinforce global climate change mitigation efforts by supporting the work of Asian researchers and experts on national and sectoral greenhouse gas emissions modelling and exchanging best practices and know-how between leading EU and Asian modellers working closely with the government.  

The project targeted China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Viet Nam as partner countries, which has 12 consortium members, consisting of ACE, Ho Chi Minh City International University (HCM-IU), Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA), The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University of Technology, Lahore University of Management Sciences, International Institute for Applied System Analysis (IIASA), Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici (CMCC), Energy Economy Environment Modelling (E3 Modelling), Postdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and managed by PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. In ASEAN region, ACE will support the input from Indonesia, while HCM-IU represents Vietnam under COMMITTED Project. During this project meeting, representatives from each consortium members participated both in-person and virtually to discuss and update each member on the project’s Working Package progress. 

Photo 2. Group photo of the participants during the office tour 

On 24 April 2024, the COMMITTED consortium members had the opportunity to visit ACE headquarters, along with a brief discussion on the potential Modelling Network with ACE. Dr. Nuki Agya Utama, Executive Director of ACE, warmly greeted the participants, fostering a welcoming atmosphere for the session and the potential of cooperation area in energy modelling with ACE. 

Proceeding to the next agenda, the COMMITTED consortium members and ACE headed towards the venue to start the project meeting. The meeting explored updates from members, delivered by representative from The Directorate-General for Climate Action (DG CLIMA). Updates from Working Packages (WP) 1 & 5 were provided by representatives from IIASA, PBL, and ACE, followed with a review and lesson learn from the previous workshops in the partner countries, namely Pakistan, China, and Indonesia. 

Photo 3. Presentation by Prof. Detlef from PBL 

The session followed with a review and reflection of project implementation and a discussion on stakeholder engagement in WP for 2024-2025 as it entered the second year of its implementation. Dr. Zulfikar Yurnaidi, Manager of ACE and Prof. Detlef van Vuuren from PBL delivered remarks to lead the discussion on preparations for the next step of COMMITTED. The first day of the project meeting concluded with a reflection on workshop organised by ACE along with an update and outlook to make an alignment with the ELEVATE (ELEVATE – Enabling and Leveraging Climate Action Towards Net Zero Emissions), which will be used for the future study among COMMITTED members.

Photo 4. Session conducted in a hybrid format 

The discussion then followed in the next day for an update and outlook on PIAM Validation Tool implementation. It then followed by the evaluation of the short-term policy impacts and analysis of the socioeconomic lens of climate policies using the modelling tools. The discussion clarified the expectation from the global modelling teams on the input of socio-economic analysis. The session then proceeded to a dialogue on the challenges faced by each partner countries and strategies to address them.  

Within this opportunity, ACE team also look forward on the further cooperation on energy modelling in ASEAN.  

The meeting wrapped up with a comprehensive overview of each Working Packages, covering summaries from all five packages. ACE delivered closing remarks, expressing appreciation to all participants and expressing optimism for positive outcomes for the COMMITTED agenda ahead.