Training Alumni Newsletter - 07/2025

Training News & Highlights

An overview of what happened and what lies ahead: 

May

• Our Train-the-Trainer programme took place for a second time! Over the three days, 12 participants from think tanks in the SEEA region learned to design impactful learning formats and they:  
   
  ☑️ Defined target groups by developing detailed personas and addressing real needs  
  ☑️ Experimented with hands-on, interactive tools  
  ☑️ Crafted impactful sessions that inform, involve and inspire action  
  ☑️ Drafted a training concept tailored to a specific audience and with clear objectives 

June 

• Our successful three-day Breaking the Gridlock training in Bangkok also returned for its second round. We had the pleasure of hosting two cohorts, bringing together around 40 energy professionals from think tanks, non-governmental and civil society organisations from across SEEA. Together, we explored the urgent challenges of integrating variable renewable energy into power systems and the strategies needed to modernise planning and operations for a successful energy transition. 

September 

• Together with our colleagues at Agora Industry, we’re launching a new training focused on industrial decarbonisation. The first cohort, open exclusively to INETTT members, has already been selected, and we’re currently crafting the curriculum. This round will include a lot of peer-to-peer exchange and participant-driven input to strengthen collaboration and learning from real-world experience from the INETTT community.
• Interested in joining next time?
  We’ll open the call for applications for the second round, taking place in the first half of 2026, towards the end of this year. To stay informed, follow us on LinkedIn or subscribe to our Learning Opportunities newsletter.  

October

• Are you interested in learning more about electricity market designs? Are you based in South, Southeast or East Asia? Then check out the call for applications for our new Market Designs Training for the SEEA context! Deadline to apply is 28 July 2025.  The training aims to equip participants with a solid understanding of market fundamentals, the challenges of integrating wind and solar and effective policy and market approaches for supporting renewables in diverse regulatory environments.

Sharon Seah 

In this edition’s Alumni Spotlight, we speak with Sharon Seah, Senior Fellow and Coordinator of the Climate Change in Southeast Asia Programme at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. Sharon shares insights into her current work on regional energy integration, the complexities of cross-border electricity trade, and why Singapore’s clean energy future relies on cooperation with its neighbours. She also reflects on her experience at our “Breaking the Gridlock” training in Bangkok, how it enhances her social science perspective, and what keeps her motivated as she begins her PhD on ASEAN regional cooperation. 

Agora Training: You work at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute. Can you tell us a bit about what your organisation does and its mission? 

Sharon: Sure! We’re the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, which used to be called the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. We added “Yusof Ishak” in honour of Singapore’s first president. The institute’s been around since 1968 and is one of the oldest research institutions in the country. Our entire focus is on Southeast Asia’s politics, economy, society and culture. The idea is to produce research that really helps people understand what is happening in the region. 

I coordinate the Climate Change in Southeast Asia Programme. It’s a pretty young programme we kicked off just five years ago, but climate change is becoming such a defining issue for the region that we knew we had to dig in. We want to help governments, businesses and the public better understand how Southeast Asian countries are responding and where the biggest challenges lie. 

Singapore, for instance, is what we call “alternative energy disadvantaged”. We’ve done a lot with solar, but even if we covered the whole island with panels, we’d only meet about 10 percent of our electricity needs. Wind isn’t really an option either. So, importing low-carbon electricity from our neighbours – Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia – is key. That’s where a lot of our work on regional energy interconnectivity comes in. 

Agora Training: You joined us last year in Bangkok for the “Breaking the Gridlock” training. What were your biggest takeaways from the three days, and how have you applied them in your work since? 

Sharon: ASEAN’s been dreaming of an ASEAN Power Grid for over 30 years, but progress has been pretty slow: only about half of the original interconnections are up and running. Now there's new momentum, and Singapore is right in the middle of it.  

That’s why the training came at the perfect time. It helped me wrap my head around the technicalities – grid harmonisation, cadence, balancing out intermittency, maintenance – all the bits that social scientists like me usually don’t get into! It was such a good foundation and gave me a better understanding of what we’re writing about in our research. 

People often assume regional electricity trade is just about connecting cables between countries. But the reality is way more complex. Different countries have different electricity markets. Some are still under a single-buyer model, others are fully liberalised like Singapore. Aligning everything, both technically and regulatorily, is a huge challenge. 

One of the biggest takeaways for me was realising that even if we solve all the technical issues, nothing moves without political will. That came out so clearly in the group discussions. Everyone kept circling back to it, no matter their background. 

Agora Training: As the Coordinator of Climate Change in the Southeast Asia Programme, what are some projects you’re currently working on that excite you the most? 

Sharon: One big project is the Laos-Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore Power Integration Project (LTMS). It kicked off in 2022 and moves electricity through legacy grids that go back to the ’50s and ’60s. These older systems can’t easily handle today’s more variable renewable sources, which makes things a lot more complicated. 

Malaysia is chairing ASEAN this year, and there’s real energy around pushing the shared power grid idea forward. Countries are trying to agree on a common set of principles: how do we bring in investments, how do we handle disputes, how do we make the whole system work better together? Of course, not everyone sees it the same way. For some countries, energy is still a national security issue, so letting in foreign investors is tricky. But overall, the political will is there, and that’s really encouraging. 

Academia has a big role to play here too. We can offer ideas, bring in lessons from other regions like Europe or Africa, and help shape the conversation with real-world examples. 

Agora Training: Do you remember your first spark: when you became interested in energy or climate issues? What inspired you, and what keeps you going? 

Sharon: Yes, vividly! I went to my first COP about seven years ago, and honestly, I left feeling quite disillusioned. It felt like thousands of delegates flying into one place, talking a lot, making big announcements… but with no real accountability for what actually happens after. 

That was my turning point, when I decided to focus on Southeast Asia. Energy is the lowest-hanging fruit here, with the biggest impact potential. The region is growing fast, our energy demand is exploding. Unless we act quickly, our emissions will too. 

What really keeps me motivated is working with young people. I give a lot of talks to schools, and they’re passionate about being part of the solution. But if we don’t show them results, they’re going to lose hope. Some already say they’re not having kids because they think there’s no future. That’s heartbreaking. We have already lost so much time fighting climate denial. Now it’s time to focus and push forward. 

Agora Training: What’s next for you or the programme? Any exciting plans on the horizon? 

Sharon: We’ve mapped out three big areas for the next phase. First, governance, where we’re comparing what countries say in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and long-term plans with what they’re actually doing. Only Singapore has submitted its second NDC so far, but we’re watching the others closely. 

Second, we’ve been running a public opinion survey across ten countries since 2019. It asks things like: how do citizens rate their government’s climate efforts? Do they support carbon taxes? Who do they think should lead on climate action? We’re pulling together five years of data now into one big trend report, which has become a flagship resource that NGOs and civil society groups use to push for change in their countries. 

And third, we’re exploring agriculture, forestry and food systems. Land use is a huge contributor to emissions in Southeast Asia so we’re looking at how to shift to a more sustainable, decarbonised agri-food system. 

On top of that, I’ve just started my PhD! I’m looking into what drives ASEAN integration and where the limits to cooperation lie. While not climate-specific, those insights apply to energy too. If we can better understand how collaboration works in this region, we can make smarter decisions around things like energy connectivity and cross-border infrastructure.