Frost & Sullivan

Asia Pacific will assume global leadership for clean energy in 2017, even though high growth in smart energy will remain elusive

SINGAPORE, Jan. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite the global uncertainty brought about by recent events such as Brexit and policy direction of the incoming Trump administration, the outlook for energy and environment markets in 2017 is largely viewed to be balanced with a slight positive inclination. This follows a period of downward revisions to the economic growth forecasts and volatility in financial and commodities markets globally, impacted by the slowdown from China and oil prices slump over a two year period.

The Conference of Parties (COP22) discussions in Marrakech were clouded by Trump's threat to pull the US out of the COP21 Paris climate change accord. While it may be difficult for the US to unilaterally scuttle the accord, since most of the world countries have affirmed their commitment to de-carbonization, the challenge lies in actually meeting the US$100 billion/year financial commitments and also agreement on the transparency of future climate monitoring.  However economics will drive the substantial investments in clean and green technologies, led by China and India.

"We expect 2017 to be a transition year for long term changes, globally. With the rising protectionism across the world, issue of energy security will once again come to the fore in Asia Pacific. This will accelerate adoption of clean technologies which can be harnessed locally and those that are less impacted by global policy & price fluctuations," noted Ravi Krishnaswamy, Vice President, Energy & Environment, Asia Pacific, Frost & Sullivan.

Frost & Sullivan discusses key trends for 2017 across the energy and environment sectors including oil & gas, power, buildings and water, in Asia Pacific.

Global Oil Industry will begin a Slow Recovery

With oil prices expected to average about US$55 per barrel in 2017, the focus will be on operational excellence as industry players try to survive the tight upstream market. However, interest in downstream sector will continue to be strong with a slew of refinery and petrochemical investments planned across developing Asia including China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Rise of LNG for power generation, even as Coal will see Decline in Capacity Addition during 2017

The global glut in LNG supply, aided by the possible large scale exports from the USA, has provided a huge opportunity for South and Southeast Asia increase its base load capacity using gas.