What needs to happen

First of all, governments must invest in better geological data and open, updated cadastres. Secondly, permitting needs to become more efficient, effective and predictable while holding firm on environmental and social safeguards. And finally, downstreaming for value addition. Fiscal stability, infrastructure and workforce development will be critical to attract capital and ensure that value is captured locally.

SEforALL has been closely engaged in this agenda. Supported by the UK Mission to ASEAN through the ASEAN-UK Green Transition Fund and in collaboration with the ASEAN Secretariat, we have produced the ASEAN Mineral Policy and Investment Guidebook, soon to be launched. The guidebook provides the first comprehensive, region-wide overview of policies, investment climate and resource endowments. It also diagnoses the barriers to exploration and investment and sets out practical reforms.

The ASEAN Mineral Policy and Investment Guidebook builds on the ASEAN Energy Transition and Investment Roadmap (ETIR), currently being developed by SEforALL and the ASEAN Centre for Energy. The roadmap identifies the clean energy technologies ASEAN will need in the future, which in turn helps determine the region’s demand for critical minerals. By linking energy demand–supply pathways with the region’s minerals base, SEforALL is helping ASEAN design a truly integrated roadmap where clean energy, industrialisation and resource sustainability move hand in hand.

In addition, SEforALL has convened policymakers and investors through ASEAN working groups, ensuring that discussions on minerals are about sustainability, industrialisation and equitable development, as much as extraction.

In this way, Southeast Asia could define the pace and scale of the global shift to clean energy - as it should.