On 8&9 December 2022, members of the Green Grids Initiative Asia-Pacific Working Group (APWG) and additional regional experts met at the headquarters of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok to report on progress and outline a workplan for the 2023 calendar year. The workshop followed UNESCAP’s annual meeting of the Expert Working Group on Power Connectivity in the region and a hybrid webinar on the role of civil society in energy planning, co-hosted by REN21.
Countries represented in the meeting included Australia, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Pakistan, Thailand, and representatives from the global steering committee in the United Kingdom.
Over the course of two days, the energy access and connectivity requirements across the region were presented and discussed in detail with a view to designing a work programme for the APWG based on input and feedback from a range of stakeholders and countries. The work of the three existing task forces were discussed in detail in breakout groups over the two days, and clear goals and immediate actions were drafted and agreed.
The APWG
The GGI Asia-Pacific Working Group (APWG) forms part of the GGI Ecosystem of regional and thematic working groups and partners driving forward the core aims of the initiative as outlined in the One Sun Declaration. It has been active since August 2021 and is led by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP). The APWG seeks to accelerate the development of resilient transmission grids, which enable the large-scale integration of renewable energy generation, in support of the global transition to clean power.