Highlights
- Energy system planning affects people and communities. Decisions on generation, transmission, distribution, and supporting infrastructure can shape land use, livelihoods, employment, local environments, access to energy, and the distribution of development benefits.
- Community engagement and benefit-sharing should therefore be integrated into energy planning and project development to ensure that communities are not only affected by energy infrastructure, but are also able to participate in and benefit from it.
- As ASEAN advances its energy transition and increases its renewable energy ambition, renewable energy projects provide an important entry point for strengthening community benefit-sharing practices in the region.
- Community benefit-sharing provides a practical approach to advancing a just and inclusive energy transition by enabling host and affected communities to benefit through local jobs, skills development, procurement opportunities, improved menergy services, community infrastructure, livelihood support, environmental programmes, and, where appropriate, revenue-sharing or co-ownership arrangements.
- This policy brief focuses on renewable energy projects as a key example, given ASEAN’s growing renewable energy deployment. It introduces community benefit-sharing practices from global and ASEAN experiences and provides recommendations for stronger policy guidance, capacity building, and regional knowledge exchange.