After decades of negotiation, the High Seas Treaty came into force this month.

Climateworks Centre is delighted to announce Egi Giwangkara has been appointed as the new Country Lead overseeing our Indonesian programs.

The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), in partnership with Monash University’s Net Zero Academy and Climateworks Centre, is launching a two-day Net Zero Leadership Program to equip Vietnamese business leaders with the tools, knowledge and strategic insights to thrive in a net zero emissions world.  Participants, organisers and presenters of the program in Ho Chi Minh City on 30 July, 2025.

An edited extract from Anna Skarbek’s remarks on 17 June 2025, at a celebration of the fifth anniversary of Climateworks Centre’s Indonesia office, held at Wisma Habibie Ainun, South Jakarta.  Climateworks Centre CEO Anna Skarbek AM speaks at the fifth anniversary celebrations.

The 2025 Australian federal election delivered a decisive mandate to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Party, which secured at least 85 seats in the House of Representatives.

The region’s industrial transformation remains the key for long- term economic prosperity – and the world’s climate goals, write Trang Nguyen and Jannata (Egi) Giwangkara for the Lowy Institute Interpreter.

Three of Indonesia’s core manufacturing sectors are crucial to the nation’s new goal of reaching net zero before 2050, a new report from Monash University’s Climateworks Centre reveals.  

Indonesia ushered in a new presidential administration, and climate circles around the country and region are speculating what the Prabowo administration means for climate progress.  Through the Paris Agreement and its Long-Term Strategy for Low Carbon and Climate Resilience 2050,  Indonesia has committed to be a net zero economy, indicating it can be a low-carbon economy by 2060 or earlier.  Climate is not the only item on the administration’s agenda.

The approaching COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, will spotlight countries’ updated climate commitments to the Paris Agreement – their second nationally determined contributions (SNDCs).  SNDCs will set the stage for climate ambition in the next decade and strongly influence the national planning, policy and governance needed to affect change.

An edited excerpt from Anna Skarbek’s remarks on 17 October 2024, celebrating Climateworks Centre’s 15th anniversary at the State Library of Victoria.

A holistic, multidimensional approach to the energy transition was central to a two-week immersive experience for climate and energy leaders from Indonesia and Vietnam in early 2024.  Climateworks Centre hosted 15 leaders for the inaugural Southeast Asia Just Energy Transition Fellowship Program, as part of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Australia Awards Fellowships in February.

In April, Climateworks Centre co-hosted the inaugural Australia-Vietnam Green Economy Summit in Vietnam, where business leaders, policymakers and industry experts discussed the acceleration of opportunities for green economy investment and trade between the two countries.

Next week, more than 100 green energy, technology, education and finance companies from Australia and Vietnam will gather in Ho Chi Minh City.

This week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese welcomed leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states and Timor Leste for a special ASEAN summit in Melbourne, where – for the first time – climate and clean energy featured as a key agenda item.

Fifteen climate and energy leaders from Indonesia and Vietnam have converged on Melbourne for the Southeast Asia Just Energy Transition Fellowship.

How can business, finance and government work in harmony in Indonesia for a just transition of the country’s energy system?

Blue ecosystems and ocean-based sectors, such as maritime transport and offshore renewable energy, can contribute 49 per cent of Indonesia’s net zero emissions transition.

Baca versi Bahasa Indonesia Ocean-based climate action can deliver up to a quarter of the global annual greenhouse gas emissions cuts pledged under the Paris Agreement.

Climateworks is prioritising work with countries in Southeast Asia with high projected emissions growth, creating solutions that can be shared and scaled throughout the region.  Our approach focuses on partnerships, coalition building and capacity building.  In the past month, our work in the region has touched on all three of these areas, giving us opportunities to share solutions as well as learn from others championing the region’s decarbonisation.

KADIN Net Zero Hub has signed a two-year MoU with Monash University, Indonesia and Climateworks Centre to build capacity within Indonesia’s private sector and to accelerate corporate commitment to net zero emissions.

Climateworks Centre has announced energy transition and decarbonisation specialist Phat Pumchawsaun as our new Southeast Asia Lead.

Monash University’s Climateworks Centre and the Center for Environmental, Social, and Governance Studies (CESGS) at the Universitas Airlangga in Surabaya, Indonesia, signed an MoU to formalise a strategic partnership. 

When politics get tough, climate progress shifts from bold statements to roadmaps, coalitions of the willing and acts of solidarity.

On 17 November 2025, Monash University’s Climateworks Centre and Purnomo Yusgiantoro Center (PYC) signed an MoU to cement their continued collaboration on accelerating Indonesia’s transition to net zero emissions.

A new project initiated by Climateworks Centre, in collaboration with Mission Possible Partnership, will focus on accelerating a transformation to clean industry in Southeast Asia and strengthening the region’s global competitiveness through a focus on clean manufacturing.  Funded by the ASEAN-UK Green Transition Fund (GTF), the Clean Manufacturing for Promoting ASEAN Competitiveness and Transformation (C-IMPACT) project is one of the key workstreams within the Pillar III clean and just energy transition and will pursue a coordinated approach to reducing manufacturing emissions in ASEAN and Timor-Leste.  

Monash University’s Climateworks Centre and the Ho Chi Minh Institute for Development Studies (HIDS) have launched a consultation on the first-of-its-kind roadmap for transforming Ho Chi Minh City’s major industrial zones into net zero industrial precincts (NZIPs).

Six leading organisations have formalised a strategic partnership at the Fifth Australia-Indonesia Energy Transition Policy Dialogue to accelerate the nation’s clean energy transition through collaborative research, policy support and institutional cooperation.  The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in Jakarta by Climateworks Centre, Centre for Policy Development (CPD), Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR), International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), Indonesia Research Institute for Decarbonization (IRID) and Purnomo Yusgiantoro Center (PYC).

On May 23 2025 in Jakarta, Climateworks convened representatives from government, industry, research organisations, investors, funders and development partners to present and discuss our work on net zero industrial precincts (NZIPs) in Indonesia.

Climateworks Centre is pleased to announce Trang Nguyen as the new Head of International Programs and Engagement.

An event co-hosted by Climateworks Centre in Jakarta explored the opportunities presented by place-based decarbonisation in Indonesia.

Having successfully decoupled emissions from economic growth, the European Union aims to be the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, Director-General, European Commission Directorate-General for Climate Action, Kurt Vandenberghe, told a Melbourne panel.

Vietnam’s rise to middle-income country status has been almost singular in its pace, typified by three-fold growth in per-capita GDP over the past 20 years and an 11 per cent decline in the poverty rate in the last decade alone.  Vietnam’s highly trade-oriented development – which last year grew nearly four times the middle-income country average – has been increasingly driven by energy-intensive manufactured goods and industrial products.  Industrial transformation is a critical imperative for Vietnam’s long-term economic viability and competitiveness.

Financing has long been recognised as a barrier to accelerating decarbonisation in Southeast Asia.

On 17 October 2024, amidst growing global and regional demand for sustainable energy solutions, Climateworks Centre and the Purnomo Yusgiantoro Center entered into a partnership to develop a roadmap for critical mineral processing for the low-carbon battery industry between Indonesia and Australia.

Climateworks Centre has launched a new program to facilitate the establishment of net zero industrial precincts in Vietnam.  This follows an MOU signed by Climateworks and Ho Chi Minh Institute of Development Studies on the sideline of Ho Chi Minh City Economic Forum (HEF).

Indonesia has signalled it could include blue carbon ecosystems — carbon-rich coastal and marine areas, like mangroves and seagrass — in its new climate targets.

Australian Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy Senator the Hon Jenny McAllister will meet Vietnamese and Australian business leaders, policymakers and industry experts in Vietnam to discuss how the countries can accelerate opportunities for green economy investment and trade. 

It’s a long and winding road – but the destination is crucial, writes Trang Nguyen for the Lowy Institute Interpreter (link opens Lowy Institute website).

Fossil fuels have driven rapid growth but the country has pledged – with global help – to be carbon neutral by 2050, writes Trang Nguyen for the Lowy Institute (link opens Lowy Institute website).

COP28 will take stock of the step change in ambition needed, but the gulf in climate finance promises and realities presents an obstacle to a stronger action.

Australia and Vietnam have shared ambitions to realise opportunities within the green economy, and the Australia-Vietnam Green Economy Program aims to reshape the contours of the green economy by equipping Australian businesses with the knowledge, capabilities and networks to catalyse sustainable business collaboration with Vietnam.

The Asia-Pacific’s greenhouse gas emissions keep rising and in some respects the region is going backwards. Climate action was the only Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 13) in which outcomes went backwards in the Asia-Pacific between 2015 and 2023.

Ensuring Southeast Asia’s energy security and financial stability are among the priorities while Indonesia is ASEAN Chair in 2023.