COLLABORATION OPPORTUNITIES IN SINGAPORE AND ASEAN’S GREEN ENERGY ECONOMY

BritCham’s Energy & Utilities Committee hosted a Thinktank Roundtable at Singapore International Energy Week in October for the third consecutive year. A summary of the discussion follows.

The UK has established itself as a leader in industrial-scale test beds for green energy. This roundtable illustrated project examples, including policy and commercial development, for industrial decarbonisation, developing hydrogen at scale, the utilisation of new and existing infrastructure, carbon capture and storage, and city-scale projects.

Following the success of past virtual Thinktank Roundtables as part of the official programme for SIEW, the British Chamber’s Energy & Utilities Committee was invited to participate in the first fully in-person edition since Covid. Starting with a fireside chat between Committee Chair Tim Rockell, Managing Director, Energy Strat Asia and Tom Moody, Regional Director SE Asia, Climate and Energy at the UK’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, the discussion focused on the key policy tools to drive a green economy on ASEAN, including what had been implemented already during the UK’s COP26 Presidency, and the upcoming COP27.

The conversation moved into a panel discussion with strong expertise in creating hydrogen and carbon capture clusters across the region. The session ended with a case study of city-based collaborative industry and public sector projects in the UK and their relevance for ASEAN. This featured moderator Mark Florance, Co-Chair of the Committee, of Climate Investor One, with panellists Rob Cooper from BP, Peter Godfrey from The Energy Institute and Storegga, Mauricio Riveros from the Carbon Trust and Nick Dingemans from Penningtons Manches Cooper.

Key policy tools to drive a green economy

The fireside chat with Tom Moody and Tim Rockell covered the ASEAN regional developments since the UK hosted COP26 in 2021 and looked ahead to what’s next for the region from COP27 in Egypt, 2022, and COP28 to be held in the UAE in 2023

Progress has been made on green energy projects in ASEAN, and cross-border policy development goals backed by the UK, 1.5c aligned Net Zero commitments now cover 85% of the region’s emissions during UK’s COP presidency so there is much government-government attention on ensuring those are matched with implementation plans, and 2030 Nationally Determined Contributions which are consistent. A focus on enabling a ‘Just’ energy transition has seen two projects in the region born out of the UK’s COP26 and G7 Presidencies - in Indonesia (led by US and Japan on behalf of G7) and Vietnam (led by UK and EU).

But we cannot take our foot off the pedal. The UK aims to keep momentum from Glasgow. COP27 focused on implementing the progress promised by Governments at COP26 such as phasing out coal, and new post-2025 donor country funding for climate projects. The UK is leading several initiatives around the region and ASEAN and Climate will stay at the top of the UK government’s agenda for the rest of the decade.

Carbon Trust-led Clean Hydrogen Innovation Program (CHIP)

The Carbon Trust highlighted its new UK hydrogen accelerator which launched in October this year. The programme seeks to align industry players and speed up the deployment of clean hydrogen, providing a solution for the disparate forecasts regarding hydrogen production and end use. Through industry-wide collaboration it aims to support innovation and reduce end-to-end costs, with the ultimate goal of making hydrogen cost-competitive with conventional alternatives. The programme addresses the key challenges identified by the UK Government’s Hydrogen Strategy.

Fifty stakeholders consulted in its design, CHIP follows the same approach as other highly successful collaborative innovation programmes run by the Carbon Trust, including its Offshore Wind Accelerator, which has helped accelerate the growth of offshore wind.

Mauricio Riveros, Associate Director, the Carbon Trust, London set out the goals of the programme. To bring about industry-wide buy-in, and targeted action to address current blockers, the goals of this accelerator model include:

• Sustained industry engagement

• Co-created with industry, needs based

• Pooling knowledge and skills

• Stimulation of supply chain solutions

• Sharing costs and leveraging funding

• Reducing R&D risk

Creating hydrogen and carbon capture clusters across ASEAN

A showcase led by Mark Florance with Nick Dingemans and Peter Godfrey, on the techno-economic and policy development features of decarbonisation projects already underway in the United Kingdom and the region including the UK’s East Coast Hydrogen project and the Acorn carbon capture and storage projects featuring the UK’s carbon capture specialist, Storegga.

These projects have applicability for ASEAN with lesson to be learnt on utilising existing infrastructure, and building new, and building a nationally focussed supply chain to meet capital project development and their ongoing operations. There is understanding to be gained from the likely pace of change in areas of technology adoption.

Panellists L-R: Mark Florance, Co-Chair, BritCham Singapore, Energy & Utilities Business Committee; Climate Investor One, Singapore; Rob Cooper, Senior BD Manager, Asia, Regions, Corporates & Solutions BP, Singapore; Peter Godfrey, Vice President APAC, Storegga and Managing Director, APAC - Energy Institute; Mauricio Riveros, Associate Director, the Carbon Trust, London; Nick Dingemans, Partner, Penningtons Manches Cooper, Singapore

Realising carbon capture and storage projects in ASEAN will require significant regulatory development and associated cross border agreements. There is an opportunity to leverage lessons learned and good practice in the UK as well as experience being gained working on the development of CCS projects elsewhere. Issues such as the cross-border transportation of CO2 (considered a waste product) and the regulatory framework together with the allocation of risk between the commercial developers of CCS projects and government and the ultimate commercial model for CCS have all been address in the UK and in the other European projects. ASEAN needs to address both the regulatory framework as well as the ultimate commercial mode.

It is important to recognise that ultimately CCS must be developed as a means of maximising capacity for carbon storage/ sequestration as opposed to being considered as an adjunct to the production of more hydrocarbons whether these be coal, oil or natural gas. Carbon credits for CCS projects (particularly in the voluntary markets) are unlikely to be available where the storage is an adjunct to enhanced hydrocarbon production but will be available were the CCS project to provide real additionality.

CCS will also provide the ability to transition to a hydrogen economy at scale. The availability of green hydrogen (and the requisite renewable energy) is potentially limited in ASEAN. CCS allows for the potential of Blue hydrogen (through steam methane reforming) using existing natural gas infrastructure and supply chains.

A showcase of work in cities with a showcase of Aberdeen

With city-based decarbonisation important for ASEAN’s metropolises and secondary cities, a showcase of the work by bp in this space in Aberdeen was set out by Rob Cooper.

bp is working with organisations from the public and private sector to reimagine and integrate the delivery of energy and mobility to help cities decarbonise. Cities account for more than 70% of global emissions. They consume around two thirds of global energy, and this is set to grow, so for the world to get to net zero, cities must lead the way.

In Aberdeen, bp has set up a Joint-Venture with the City to help create an integrated hydrogen hub. Phase 1 includes building a green hydrogen facility supplying bus and truck fleets, developing a new solar farm, and stimulating supply chain, skills, and training. Future phases include expansion through ScotWind, supply of heat for housing, industrial buildings, rail and maritime sectors, and hydrogen for export.

Summary

The Chamber is grateful to the support of SIEW and the EMA in facilitating this roundtable. Policy development is of key concern in markets where predictability and precision on the direction of travel is required to transition at scale and ensure that ambitions on social mobility and justness of outcomes for all people across ASEAN are considered and met.

The private sector is ready to do its part and the chamber is ready to direct enquires on opportunities in ASEAN and highlight case studies from the UK such as those outlined above where lessons-learnt can be taken on board as the region develops projects and builds its own supply chain around new technologies that will need to be adopted.

The work of the committee can be found on our website and past work on topics such as hydrogen, carbon markets and interconnectivity and smart grids on the chamber’s YouTube channel