Energy poverty alleviation in Southeast Asian countries: policy implications for improving access to electricity

ABSTRACT

Over the past 20 years, the improvement of access to electricity in Southeast Asia has been substantial. The electrification rate in this region has improved from approximately 60% in 2000 to more than 70% in 2010 and more than 90% in 2018. However, there are still 45 million people without access to electricity living mainly in Cambodia and Myanmar where other poverty issues coexist. This study aims to review the progress of the improvement of access to electricity in this region and suggest policy implications for improving access to electricity to combat energy poverty.

KEYWORDS:

• Energy poverty
• energy access
• access to electricity
• Southeast Asia

Acknowledgments

The author acknowledges the valuable comments and contributions given by the reviewers to improve the quality of this article. The author also acknowledges the support from editors, Prof. Qin Gao (Columbia University) and Prof. Alex Jingwei He (The Education University of Hong Kong), to select this paper to be part of this special issue ‘Poverty alleviation in Asia: A comparative perspective’ at Journal of Asian Public Policy.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Chian-Woei Shyu

Chian-Woei Shyu is associate professor of the Department of Political Science, National Chung-Cheng University in Taiwan. He obtained his PhD in Political Science from University of Bonn (Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) in Germany. His research interests lie in intersection of public policy, sustainable energy, and climate change, focusing on energy poverty and right to energy. He has published papers in SSCI/SCI journals including Energy Policy, Energy for Sustainable Development.