As Malaysian prime minister Anwar Ibrahim handed over the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) chairmanship to the Philippines two months ago in Kuala Lumpur, President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr said the country will champion initiatives that empower the region’s security, economy, and people.
Earlier, the Department of Foreign Affairs highlighted how climate change will be a key issue to be tackled as the Philippines heads the Asean summit next year.
The Philippines is gearing up to meet its renewable energy goals through offshore wind as it inaugurates a green energy auction programme for the clean energy resource by the end of December. It follows the release of a roadmap for offshore wind projects to ensure that permit bottlenecks do not stall the country’s push to realise more than 178 gigawatts (GW) of its potential capacity.
The Philippines will be championing the development of offshore wind power as a way to export energy in the Asean Power Grid (APG) as it takes up the cudgels from Malaysia in cross-border renewable energy trade, said Michael Sinocruz, director of the Department of Energy’s policy and planning bureau. The agency is one of the main offices that develops and updates the Philippine Energy Plan (PEP) and studies the impacts of international commitments on energy policies, the economy, and the environment.
But the clean energy drive will come alongside the protection of marine biodiversity. The risk of disturbing marine life due to the construction of offshore wind turbine foundations was cited by Sinocruz as one of the examples of why energy and the environment must be linked under Asean policy.
Michael Sinocruz, Director of Policy and Planning Bureau, Department of Energy. Image: DOE
“The Philippines chairmanship will advance the integrated climate and energy agenda by bridging marine protection and sustainable energy transition,” Sinocruz told the Eco-Business podcast.
The chairmanship of Asean rotates among its members in alphabetical order. The Philippines was meant to host in 2027 after Myanmar, but the bloc’s leaders decided in 2023 that the junta-led country would not be allowed to chair the group.
As Asean chair, the Philippines will lead hundreds of meetings across the archipelago, including the two summits — the 48th and 49th Asean summits. The first will have Marcos, Jr and the 10 other Asean leaders in attendance. The second will include the bloc’s key dialogue partners such as China, Japan, South Korea, and the United States.
About US$88 million (P5.4 billion) was budgeted for the preparations in 2025, and almost US$300 million (P17.5 billion) will be spent on hosting throughout the duration of 2026.
In this podcast, Eco-Business speaks with Sinocruz about how the Philippines will be advancing the APG, following incumbent chair Malaysia, and how Southeast Asian nations should create an Asean bloc during negotiations like COP to strengthen the region’s interests.
Tune in as we discuss:
- How clean energy development can be prioritised without harming marine conservation
- Climate priorities amid tensions over the South China Sea
- Creating an Asean bloc at COP
- Developing a transition minerals supply chain in Southeast Asia
This transcript has been edited for clarity.
The government has announced that the Philippines will prioritise peace and security, maritime cooperation, and climate issues as the country heads the Asean summit next year. What specific climate issues will the country be focusing on?
On climate change, the country will use the chairmanship to lead the regional cooperation towards the protection and preservation of the marine environment from pollution, pushing for further action, that would minimise the release of toxic, harmful substances within the region, and in international waters, as well as strengthen enforcement to preserve ecosystems in Southeast Asia.
The Philippines will also address climate change through the identification of marine protected areas – those that are specifically vulnerable to ocean acidification and marine pollution and mitigating cumulative climate impacts.
Building on this, the Philippines will use the chairmanship to advance the integrated climate and energy agenda by bridging marine production and sustainable energy transition.
The country will also champion the operationalisation of the enhanced memorandum of understanding on the Asean power grid as one of the priority economic deliverables for 2026. This initiative will strengthen regional connectivity, enable greater renewable energy integration, and contribute to Asean’s collective decarbonisation goals.
The Philippines will also support the implementation of the Asean and climate change strategic action plan covering the period 2025 until 2030, emphasising capacity building, climate finance, technology transfer, and nature-based solutions.
One of the climate issues that the Philippines will be prioritising will be marine conservation. How will we advocate for this with other Asean member countries?
Under the Asean umbrella framework, marine conservation would be part of the environmental pillar, separate from energy [which falls] under the economic pillar.
We would push for closer coordination between these two pillars. We need to link these two because we are pushing for offshore wind [technology], [whose structures underwater] will affect the marine ecosystem. We are also pushing for floating solar, which would also have some impact on marine life.
You mentioned climate finance and technology transfer. How are we seeking climate finance from more developed countries from the region?
Developing countries, under the COP agreement, would like to access low-cost financing to accelerate the energy transition. Low-cost financing should be available to developing countries through grants and similar financial mechanisms.
Asean leaders are talking about blended finance, which should cover a portion of government funds to be allocated for climate mitigation and adaptation on technology transfer.
It is very important because not all developing countries have access to new and emerging technologies and if they do have access to these technologies, they are expensive. In this case, we want to push for, not only access to finance, but also access to new and emerging technologies that would be affordable and accessible to developing countries.
Who are the developed countries the Philippines is speaking with to access climate finance?
Right now we are negotiating with Singapore. We are pushing for the interconnectivity of Asean specifically in the Philippines since we are considered off-grid within the Asean region.
There was an initial discussion before with Singapore about how they want to import electricity from renewable energy coming from the Philippines. Since we issued several service contracts specifically for offshore wind, we may have excess generation or capacity from offshore wind, which we can export to the region, specifically to Singapore.
Our priority right now is how fast we can interconnect the Philippines to the Asean region – [that is why] we will be including the APG as a means to enhance clean energy and trade opportunities through offshore wind.
Are we really ready to export electricity when we don’t seem to be prepared for our own domestic clean energy use?
Most of the renewable energy capacity will come in before 2030. After we conducted several green energy auctions, up to the latest one, the fourth one, which we concluded last month, we see that it would provide us with enough capacity to meet our target.
Remember that the Philippines has a target of reaching 35 per cent share of renewable energy [by 2030]. Through our auctions, we can meet and even surpass our target by 2030, provided that this capacity will come online as scheduled, with no delays.
As Asean chair, the Philippines will have to navigate discussions on the South China Sea, where China and Asean member countries like ours have competing claims. Has the South China Sea row ever blocked cooperation among Asean members when discussing climate issues?
On the contrary, the South China Sea has been common ground among Asean member states, specifically in addressing climate issues.
In particular, through the declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea in 2002, Asean member have come to a consensus on their maritime activities in the South China Sea.
This cooperation is grounded on universally recognised principles of international law. enshrined in the charter of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Practical maritime cooperation initiatives in the areas of environmental protection, scientific research, safety of navigation, search and rescue operations and transnational crimes – these are all being observed and we expect that these initiatives will frame further opportunities for cooperation grounded in the recognition of our duty towards the environment in the region.
You mentioned the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea, which is a planned agreement between China and Asean aimed at managing and regulating the complex territorial and maritime disputes in the region. Since negotiations started more than two decades ago, you said that climate issues have not got in the way of negotiations. But there hasn’t been any talk about the COC being legally binding. Could this be a signal that it is difficult to navigate climate change issues, in light of the current South China Sea situation?
I don’t think so. Climate issues are extensively discussed under the environment pillar of Asean cooperation, although, as I mentioned earlier, there should be a greater initiative on linking energy with the climate discussion under Asean.
I notice, when I’m attending the COP, there’s no Asean bloc. There are many groupings in COP like the African countries, the small island countries, but there’s no Asean. It should be looked upon during our chairmanship that there must be an Asean group with a common position to push forward during COP. We were informed during an energy ministers’ meeting that there’s an initiative to create an Asean bloc during COP.
Speaking of COP, what do you think the Asean bloc should be championing in terms of what you mentioned about linking energy and environment?
I think it is common within Asean that we push for a just energy transition and take into account a balanced energy system. We need to consider what we call the energy trilemma, ensuring that there is energy security, affordability and sustainability.
There must be a close linkage between environment and energy. We need to craft our common position on climate issues that we’re going to raise during COP. In Asean, the issue would be on the phase-out of coal. So there was already a position last year that we will not go for a phase down because based on the Asean energy outlook, many member states are still be dependent on coal.
What we’re going to support as an Asean region would only be a transition way from fossil fuel, specifically coal.
The Philippines is working towards submitting our updated nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Climate Accord, with the government being vocal about tapping on carbon credits to meet its climate targets. Will this be one of the priorities for the Philippines as Asean chair?
The carbon market is being discussed under a separate pillar. At Asean, we need to enhance interconnectivity so that we can share clean energy.
Another priority that could be considered under our chairmanship is looking at the supply chain for the development of clean energy technology or technologies. Because for instance, we do have the raw materials and critical minerals so we can process them.
We will be looking at the supply chain of producing clean energy technology. The parts and components of solar or wind should be produced within the Asean region, considering that we do have the raw materials here, rather than exporting and processing them overseas, and then importing them again for the assembly.
What do you mean by carbon credits not being discussed at Asean because they are under a different pillar?
There is talk of carbon trading and carbon markets at Asean, but the establishment of a regional carbon market will be under the environment pillar. There are already discussions on carbon credits and trading, but again, going back to linkages between energy and the environment, this would realise the establishment of the carbon market because most of the carbon credits will come from energy.
The carbon trading rules that were announced were for the energy sector, not for the forestry or environment sector. Why then are the rules for the carbon markets under the environment pillar, not the energy pillar at Asean?
What the Department of Energy released was a signed policy through a department circular on carbon credits. This will only provide the general guidelines, specifically for the energy on the carbon credits, but the overall framework should be provided by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. There’s a draft executive order already, which will align with the carbon policy that we recently issued. The target release of this executive order of the national framework [for carbon credits] will be this year.
What do you think the Philippines can do differently in chairing Asean?
We can showcase that we do have a carbon policy right now on energy. We can accelerate the adoption of such carbon policy within the Asean region to fast-track the establishment of carbon markets and push through with carbon credits trading within the Asean region.
What are you most hopeful about with regards to the Philippines as Asean chair?
[I’m looking forward to] focusing on establishing the interconnectivity of the Philippines with the rest of the Asean region; a supply chain for the clean energy technologies and maybe, at the Asean energy meeting, we can propose the establishment of an Asean bloc at COP.
I am looking forward to what could be the common stance of the Asean region when it comes to COP, specifically on energy transition.
