National University of Singapore’s IES, The Rockefeller Foundation Advance Renewable Energy Connectivity in Southeast Asia

~ Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy’s Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES) launches new fellowship and policy dialogues designed to accelerate the region’s energy transition.

~ The Rockefeller Foundation’s 2-year, US$275,000 grant to IES supports boosting regional capacity to enhance energy flows across countries.

SINGAPORE | April 18, 2024 ― The National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy’s Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES) and The Rockefeller Foundation announced a new collaboration to accelerate the Southeast Asia’s energy transition efforts. With a US$275,000 (SG$370,000) grant from The Rockefeller Foundation, IES will launch a new climate policy fellowship while leading a series of dialogues over the next two years with national and regional leadership designed to enhance regional energy connectivity in Southeast Asia. By strengthening capacity to deliver renewable energy from one country to neighboring countries’ high-demand areas, this collaboration will not only improve regional energy flows, but also support countries’ energy transition and development goals.

Professor Benjamin W. Cashore, Director of IES, said: “It is our immense pleasure to be associated with The Rockefeller Foundation to facilitate regional energy connectivity dialogue in Southeast Asia. This grant will enable our institute to build our analytic, managerial, and technical capacity needed to identify innovative policy mixes for effective and lasting climate policy pathways, crucial for closing the observed gaps between national climate commitments and the policies and legislation to achieve them. We hope to support the efforts of climate policymakers through our research and dialogue.”

The Rockefeller Foundation’s grant provides IES with resources to create a new fellowship to convene ministerial and high-level experts, scholars, and practitioners. In line with IES’ mission to develop effective climate and sustainability policy analysis for the region while bridging the gap between available policy tools and expected impacts, the dialogues aim to accelerate regional energy connectivity by enhancing capacity to develop and integrate more effective policies. These convenings will focus on a range of technical issues, including shortening the implementation cycles for cross-border energy trade and ensuring durable energy connectivity through equitable energy partnerships.

Announcing this collaboration, Deepali Khanna, Vice President, Asia Regional Office, The Rockefeller Foundation said: “Policy action to accelerate green transitions will only be successful and equitable if it reflects viewpoints, debates and narratives from the Global South and Southeast Asia. Through this collaboration with IES, we hope to amplify those voices. The Rockefeller Foundation has always believed in creating equal opportunity for all and with our new 5-year climate strategy, this grant facilitating policy design dialogue is a positive step in the right direction. IES is a wonderful ally to further the importance of collective stakeholder action towards climate change. This grant will serve as a platform for an increasing number of sustainable academia, policy think-tanks and industry collaborations in the future.”

By promoting evidence-based dialogue towards collective climate action, this two-year grant supports the growing interest in climate policy discourse by, and for, the Global South. It also aligns with The Rockefeller Foundation’s five-year, billion-dollar climate strategy, announced last September to advance the global climate transition and help ensure everyone can participate in it.

About The Rockefeller Foundation

The Rockefeller Foundation is a pioneering philanthropy built on collaborative partnerships at the frontiers of science, technology, and innovation that enable individuals, families, and communities to flourish. We make big bets to promote the well-being of humanity. Today, we are focused on advancing human opportunity and reversing the climate crisis by transforming systems in food, health, energy, and finance. For more information, sign up for our newsletter at www.rockefellerfoundation.org/subscribe and follow us on X @RockefellerFdn and LI @the-rockefeller-foundation.

About Institute for Environment and Sustainability

The Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES) at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP) is a research institute dedicated to generating fit-for-purpose policy solutions for Southeast Asia’s most pressing environmental and sustainability challenges. The institute draws on policy research, design, and expertise of LKYSPP to help close the gap between sustainability policy goals and desired outcomes. IES seeks to empower agents of change to identify, design, and trigger effective sustainability policy pathways through the generation of primary research, stakeholder dialogues, and capacity building. For more information, please visit https://lkyspp.nus.edu.sg/ies/.