Bridging voices, shaping futures: The rise of a just energy transition movement in Southeast Asia

Before sunrise in a coastal Southeast Asian village, a woman wakes in near darkness. A single bulb glows weakly—when electricity flows at all. She boils water over charcoal, breathing in smoke that will deepen the lines in her lungs long before her time. By mid-morning, she walks past the coal-fired power plant that dominates the coastline, its towering stacks feeding electricity into national grids and powering cities and industries far from where she lives. The paradox here is stark: she lives in the shadow of energy production yet remains largely excluded from the benefits it generates.

Unfortunately, this is not a single story. It echoes across the region: in fishing villages, farming communities, mining towns, and rapidly growing peri-urban centers. It is the story of Southeast Asia’s unequal energy landscape, where those closest to extraction often gain the least. And in a warming world, it is a story unfolding against the backdrop of intensifying climate disasters. 

In recent years, the region has found itself moving from one climate‑driven disruption to the next, as storms, floods, and heatwaves, among others, reshape the rhythms of daily life. Yet even as communities confront these growing uncertainties, the energy systems around them remain anchored in coal, continuing to feed the very instability people are struggling to endure. It is a quiet contradiction, one where the engines of progress deepen the fragility of the world they were meant to strengthen.

The energy transition, hence, is no longer optional; it is inevitable. Here, the questions that will matter include how Southeast Asia will transition and who will shape its future. Without deliberate attention to justice, the transition risks entrenching old inequalities: displacing Indigenous communities for transition minerals, excluding women from decision-making, burdening countries with debt-heavy climate finance, and leaving workers behind as fossil-based industries decline.

A just transition requires more than renewable energy targets. It requires voice, participation, and power. It requires platforms where those most affected, not just officials and industry, shape the direction of change. This kind of alignment, however, does not happen automatically; it must be built. And this is where the Climate Action Network Southeast Asia (CANSEA) steps in

Connecting scales in a fragmented energy landscape

As part of the global Climate Action Network—representing over 2,500 civil society organizations (CSOs) worldwide—CANSEA works across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Cambodia, and beyond. But to describe CANSEA simply as a network would be to understate its role. It is a connector, bridging the worlds of policymakers and grassroots communities, national policy struggles and ASEAN regional diplomacy, and local lived realities and global climate negotiations.

This work intensified through CANSEA’s partnership with Oxfam under the Influencing Just Energy Transition (I-JET) Program. Together, they helped shape regional thinking on what a “gender-just” energy transition should look like. Their co-produced Gender-Just Energy Transition in ASEAN paper in 2024 fed into discussions around the ASEAN Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation (APAEC) 2026–2030, marking a shift from civil society raising concerns at the margins to influencing policy frameworks that will shape regional energy governance for years to come.

CANSEA’s work is rooted in a simple but powerful premise: energy transition cannot succeed without those most affected at the center of decision-making.

From dialogue to influence

At the heart of CANSEA’s strategy is a deceptively simple tool: bringing people together. CANSEA believes in the practice of convening, an age-old but often undervalued method of building collective power. Over the past three years, the Network has served as a key convener of regional dialogues on just energy transition, hosting gatherings from Jakarta to Phnom Penh to Kuala Lumpur. These convenings bring together CSOs, policymakers, researchers, labor groups, philanthropies, and climate negotiators from across Southeast Asia and beyond.

But these are not just routine meetings. They are spaces where narratives shift, alliances form, and strategies align.

Relationships in this way become infrastructure, the unseen architecture enabling progress in a region as diverse as Southeast Asia. Where trust is built, connections become leverage points in national, regional, and global decision-making processes.

For government officials, such as Dr. Saravanee, these dialogues offer access to perspectives rarely heard in formal venues. For CSOs, they provide opportunities to understand government constraints and influence policy windows. For the region as a whole, they help align diverse actors around shared visions of a just transition.

Local roots, regional reach

While CANSEA operates at the regional level, its strength lies in its deep connections to national and local contexts. In Malaysia and across Southeast Asia, CANSEA supports climate literacy, gender inclusion, and governance initiatives. These efforts may seem localized, but they form the foundation of broader regional influence. For instance, CANSEA members Humanis in Indonesia and NGO Forum in Cambodia anchor their work in community experience.

In Indonesia, CANSEA has supported independent local organization Humanis to amplify the voices of communities affected by coal power. In Cirebon, residents living in the shadow of a coal plant, including fisherfolk, women processing shellfish, and youth groups, were able to share firsthand accounts of environmental and social impacts. In Sumba, one of Indonesia’s least electrified regions, communities spoke about the struggle for energy access even as the national conversation focused on large-scale renewable investments. Here, Humanis organized dialogues where these communities shared concerns, hopes, and insights directly with national agencies.

CANSEA’s support also allowed Humanis to help shape the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework of Indonesia’s Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), aimed at mobilizing public and private financing to support JET in the country. Through collaborative writeshops involving women’s rights groups, youth, legal experts, environmental advocates, and mining-affected communities, Humanis co-developed proposals to ensure justice and inclusion were embedded in Indonesia’s transition timeline. Crucially, the JETP Secretariat actively participated, bridging civil society perspectives directly into formal planning.

Through CANSEA’s convenings, Humanis gained insight into how other countries’ commitments, such as the ASEAN Power Grid, intersect with Indonesia’s plans. This regional awareness helps Indonesia’s CSOs refine advocacy, ensuring coherence with broader Southeast Asian progress. With CANSEA’s support, Humanis even developed a collaborative advocacy agenda tied to Indonesia’s new administration, focusing on the first 100 days of the President’s term, a critical window to influence JETP implementation.

In Cambodia, meanwhile, NGO Forum—a national membership-based organization—used CANSEA’s support to engage with the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Mines and Energy, and other line ministries. Their input helped shape Cambodia’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC 3.0), pushing for stronger carbon neutrality commitments and highlighting unsustainable hydropower investments.

In the past, NGO Forum has also never engaged in COP, but with CANSEA’s support, they are now able to bring their messages to the global level, emphasized Saroeun. 

These examples illustrate a key pattern where local experiences are not isolated. They are scaled through networks, translated into policy language, and brought into regional and global arenas. For CANSEA, this is more than consultation; it is influence. And it demonstrates how local voices, when organized and connected, can shape national and even regional energy policy.

Diversifying who shapes the transition

One of CANSEA’s most significant contributions lies in expanding who gets to participate in energy discussions. Traditionally, these conversations have been dominated by technical experts, government officials, and industry actors. Issues such as gender, labor rights, and community impacts have often been sidelined.

Through its convenings and partnerships, CANSEA is helping shift this dynamic.

This exposure has real implications for policy. For instance, insights from CANSEA convenings have informed labor-related discussions in international negotiations, emphasizing the need for social protection, reskilling, and meaningful dialogue in the transition process, as in the case of the Philippines. 

According to Bernard: “Energy transition must be labor rights-affirming. There must be robust social protection, especially during periods of displacement. Above all, meaningful social dialogue is essential. CANSEA’s work plays a crucial role in helping socialize government officials within the context of a just energy transition.”

Cambodia provides another powerful example. A CANSEA-hosted conference in Siem Reap brought together diverse actors to discuss transitioning away from fossil fuels. NGO Forum’s Saroeun explains: “One key outcome was the Government of Cambodia’s declaration of its intent to engage in the upcoming COP as a more active negotiator.”

This shift—from passive observer to active negotiator—signals a growing confidence and capacity among governments supported by strong civil society engagement. Through these national engagements, CANSEA’s inclusive convenings have influenced energy positions in international negotiations and helped governments understand the social dimensions of the transition not just the technical ones.

Shaping regional narratives

CANSEA is not only broadening participation but also reshaping how the energy transition is understood. In many policy spaces, the transition is framed primarily in technical terms: megawatts installed, emissions reduced, investments mobilized. While important, these metrics often overlook deeper questions of justice and equity. CANSEA, then, brings attention back to people.

This narrative shift is evident in regional frameworks such as APAEC 2026–2030, which now includes stronger emphasis on gender equality, disability, and social inclusion (GEDSI). While multiple actors contributed to this outcome, CANSEA’s role in advancing these conversations is widely recognized.

CANSEA also achieved a major regional breakthrough when it secured JET as a central theme within the ASEAN Peoples’ Coalition. As the coordinator of the JET cluster, CANSEA articulated the vision of JET for ASEAN during the ASEANPeoples@ASEAN2025 opening plenary session. CANSEA also helped craft the civil society communiqué, which was presented to the Malaysian Prime Minister, thereby ensuring justice-centered energy transition demands were heard at the highest political level. For a region where civil society influence on energy governance is often constrained, this was transformative. It elevated Southeast Asian civil society voices into formal ASEAN processes, creating an enabling environment for future policy influence.

Through these efforts, CANSEA is helping redefine what success looks like in the energy transition: not just cleaner energy but also fairer systems.

From Southeast Asia to the world

CANSEA’s influence does not stop at ASEAN. Through its engagement in global climate processes, the network ensures that Southeast Asian perspectives shape international decision-making. 

As Dr. Zulfikar puts it: “Convenings advance linkages not only between nations but also between regions. CANSEA is the perfect partner to reach this level of advocacy.”

For instance, at UNFCCC SB62 in Bonn, CANSEA contributed to securing the inclusion of just transition principles in the negotiated text forwarded to COP30. It also co-organized a global side event on gender-transformative approaches to just transition, highlighting voices from Southeast Asia.

Importantly, CANSEA ensures that these global conversations are informed by realities on the ground. In Indonesia, for example, community experiences with renewable energy planning and extractive industries have been brought into regional and global discussions, strengthening advocacy efforts. 

Arti, recalling her experience with Humanis, says: “Our country’s commitments depend on other countries’ commitments. CANSEA helps us understand this and push for stronger action.”

By connecting grassroots realities to global platforms, CANSEA ensures that international frameworks and, crucially, climate finance decisions reflect Southeast Asian contexts and priorities.

A collective voice for Southeast Asia

But, perhaps, CANSEA’s most enduring impact lies in building a sense of regional solidarity.

Southeast Asia is diverse, with countries at different stages of development, varying energy mixes, and distinct political contexts. Aligning priorities across such diversity is inherently challenging. Yet CANSEA has helped cultivate a shared narrative around just transition.

As Arti notes: “It’s hard to pinpoint a shared priority. But energy is one of them.”

Through convenings, joint interventions, and coordinated advocacy, CANSEA helps transform individual struggles into collective influence. Governments are beginning to respond not only by engaging but also by adopting elements of justice-centered transitions into national strategies.

Harjeet sees this as a clear sign of impact: “The growing interest and response from governments is already an impact. These conversations shift policies in their countries.”

From momentum to transformation

As Southeast Asia navigates its energy future, the stakes could not be higher. The region stands at a crossroads: it can either replicate extractive models under the banner of green transition, or it can chart a path that is rooted in justice, inclusion, and sustainability.

CANSEA’s work, buoyed by the I-JET Program, shows how the latter can be built: through relationships, trust, evidence, and collective action. It demonstrates that convening is not just about gathering people; it is about shifting power. Research becomes a tool for advocacy. Community stories become the basis for policy influence. And civil society becomes not just a watchdog, but a cocreator of the region’s energy future.

CANSEA’s work shows that behind every policy, every framework, and every investment decision are people whose lives are shaped by these choices.

In a region as complex and dynamic as Southeast Asia, that may be the most powerful form of impact of all.