Energy consumption trends and their linkages with renewable energy policies in East and Southeast Asian countries: Challenges and opportunities

Global warming is one of today's most critical environmental issues, caused largely by emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide from burning of fossil fuels. Emissions of carbon dioxide vary throughout countries in Asia. It is increasingly recognised that countries must act to promote the greater use of renewable energy resources as part of actions seeking to mitigate climate change. This paper presents a review of the energy demand scenario in China, Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia and the growth of non-fossil energy in these countries. Energy scenarios within these countries are investigated to identify the opportunities and challenges that exist in developing renewable energy. Energy production among the four countries was analysed. In 2014, China made the highest use of renewables for primary energy production, while Malaysia used them the least. However, fossil energy still constitutes the primary energy source in each country where coal dominates in China (77%) and Indonesia (70%), oil in Japan (28%) and natural gas in Malaysia (61%). In addition, renewable energy policies have been introduced and established based on the energy needs and development status of renewables in each country. This study analyses and compares strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis of these countries based on their renewable energy policies. It identifies the challenges for renewable energy development and highlights the necessity of enhanced multilevel governance processes and increased cooperation between the four countries to strengthen their renewable energy sectors and better compete in the global energy market.