A Decentralized Pathway for Energy Security and Energy Transition in Asia and the Pacific Region

With the onset of Climate Change as a biggest Challenge in today’s era, energy security and the consequent energy transition has been addressed as issue of concern by all the countries across globe. In the context of conceptualisation of energy security in a 4 A framework defined in terms of accessibility, affordability, availability and acceptability, the paper finds all its remedies and solutions in prescribing a decentralized pathway for the selected region of Asia and the Pacific. Kumarappa’s notion of ‘economy of permanence’ which recommends decentralization as a key alternative for improving the situation of people is reinforced by the paper in the context of ensuring energy security in the current scenario of energy transition. The paper concludes that by empowering local communities, strengthening their indigenous clean energy technologies would solve the impediments of political economy involved in the process of achieving energy accessibility. This would further contribute immensely in making each local community or region energy secure thus uplifting the standard of living and improving the quality of life. In this manner paper argues that a decentralized approach in adopting renewable energy technologies would safeguard the entire nation from becoming technologically dependent on Western economies. Finally, the paper strongly recommends Kumarappa’s notion of non–violent economy and Gandhian ideas as a sustainable solution or a benchmark in the current times when the entire economy is undergoing a transformation. This can be achieved by adopting bottom up approach for energy transition, ensuring energy security proposes a bottom up approach, along with the top — down approach. This entails utilizing human resource, encouraging skill enhancement and promoting research and development perfectly aligned in the direction to cater to the needs of indigenous communities or society