The GGKP's Seventh Annual Conference took place on 21-22 October 2019 in conjunction with the Global Green Growth Institute’s Global Green Growth Week 2019 (GGGW2019) on the theme of “Achieving Global Energy Transformation” in Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Dr. Elena Reshetova presented her paper “Does Accountability Matter for Sustainability? Urban Energy Transitions in Southeast Asia” in Session C.3: Transforming Energy in Cities. Elena is a Research Fellow at the Energy Studies Institute at the National University of Singapore with experience researching natural gas market development in Asia and Europe; policymaking in the oil and gas industry in East Asia, ASEAN and North America; governance of nuclear energy; and the evolution of national energy security policies.
1) Briefly describe the topic and conclusion of your research.
The paper I am presenting at the 2019 GGKP Annual Conference is about the role of accountability in the policy processes of urban energy transitions in large Southeast Asian cities. The key preliminary conclusion of this research project is that it is not only local government’s accountability that contributes to achieving sustainability, but also it is a cumulative effect of numerous and diverse accountability relationships.
2) What are the key policy messages/implications?
While municipal and local governments are the key actors implementing policies at the city level, sustainable outcomes should not be taken for granted even if local governments appear to be accountable to the public. Accountability relations should be cultivated between all stakeholders because the areas of governance lagging behind have a set of the weakest and most obscure accountability relations.
3) Are there any challenges you would like to underline from this research?
The main challenge is access to relevant stakeholders and data collection, even if in theory it is publicly available information.
4) What are the opportunities for collaboration around this issue?
One opportunity for collaboration is bringing together city and national level government officials at the policy and regulation planning stage. Another opportunity is mapping and establishing clear lines of communication between various stakeholders.
5) Which session(s) are you interested in attending at GGKP7 and why?
In addition to the keynote address and high-level panels, I am interested in attending the “Pathways to the Green Energy Transition” (Parallel Session A.1) and “Finance and Investment” (Parallel Session B.2) sessions. While several other sessions are of interest to me as well, they are running in parallel with the ones I mentioned above.