Regional cooperation in renewable energy trade: Prospects and constraints

Though the availability of cost effective and potentially efficient renewable energy technologies is a necessary condition for the promotion of green growth nationally and internationally, it is the intended nationally determined contributions (INDC) to make use of such technologies is crucial. International trade in low-carbon renewable energy goods provides an effective way of achieving INDCs nationally, even when individual countries may not have sufficient infrastructure readily available to them to fulfill INDCs. It is in this context, examination of whether renewable energy goods exports have been flowing without constraints in the Asian region and whether the RCEP regional cooperation mooted by the ASEAN can potentially facilitate minimizing those constraints at the regional level. The short answers to those questions are no and yes, respectively. The answer is no mainly due to the existing institutional rigidities of which the major one is the non-tariff measures. The answer is yes mainly due to the possibility of improving the technical cooperation in producing renewable energy goods and consultations in removing non-tariff barriers through the effective functioning of RCEP.