DURING last month’s Asia Clean Energy Forum (ACEF) 2026, there was a major shift in focus among more than 200 expert speakers across 40 track sessions and workshops. Set against the backdrop of the Middle East crisis, ACEF 2026 concluded that Asia is no longer debating whether its energy transition should happen, but rather how fast it can move and how integrated regional systems must become.
With over 1,400 attendees from 71 participating countries, ACEF 2026 was held at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) headquarters in Metro Manila. It aligned with ADB’s 60th anniversary this year and its newly updated 2025 Energy Policy, which positions ADB as a “climate bank” because it believes global warming poses an existential threat to development and poverty reduction in Asia and the Pacific.
Heavy emphasis was given to exchanges between developing nations belonging to the Global South, a loose grouping of countries that share historical experiences of colonialism and characteristics of lower- to middle-income levels outside the traditional centers of global economic and political power. Most of these countries are in Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, South Asia and Oceania.
India is leading the Global South in promoting cooperation for the sustainable use of renewable resources. A founding member of the ADB, India is the bank’s fourth-largest shareholder next to Japan, the United States and China. Operationally, it remains a recipient of ADB financing but at the same time serves as a technology and knowledge-sharing hub.
Since 2013, India and the Philippines have forged a substantive relationship in the field of clean energy as operationalized through the Joint Working Group on Renewable Energy. This was elevated by the declaration on the establishment of a strategic partnership between both governments during the 2025 state visit of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. upon the invitation of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.
Along with France, India co-founded the International Solar Alliance (ISA) in 2015 and hosts ISA’s world headquarters in Greater Delhi. The treaty-based intergovernmental organization is now composed of 124 signatory member countries, and it aims to mobilize $1 trillion in solar investments by 2030 primarily through its Global Solar Facility, a payment guarantee fund created by ISA to stimulate solar power projects.
Partnerships
In November 2026, India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy will launch the Bharat Renewable Energy Summit & Expo in New Delhi. More than 50,000 delegates are expected to attend this event, which will take place alongside the 9th session of the ISA Assembly and the 4th International Conference on Green Hydrogen.
Major bilateral partnerships have also been established by India with the European Union, Australia, Germany and the Netherlands. These include the Indo-German Green Hydrogen Roadmap; the EU-India Green Hydrogen Task Force; the Clean Energy and Climate Partnership with the EU; the Indo-Dutch Joint Working Group on clean tech innovation; and the new energy accord signed recently with Australia covering renewables and critical minerals.
As a solar manufacturing hub, India is leveraging its long coastline, low costs and the proximity of its ports to both Europe and East Asia, where demand for renewables is greatest. Its National Green Hydrogen Mission was launched in 2023 with targets producing at least 5 million metric tons of clean hydrogen annually by 2030 to drive industrial decarbonization and reduce fossil fuel imports.
Domestic momentum backs India’s ambition of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2070. Originally part of the subcontinent’s climate action plan, this long-term vision requires a massive structural overhaul of the country’s energy, transport and industrial sectors. As of mid-2026, it has attained 288 GW of cumulative renewable capacity and is on track to reach its goal of 500 GW by 2030.
Utilizing ISA as its primary vehicle for financial risk mitigation and technology transfer, India actively champions Africa’s distributed renewable energy sector. This Global South strategy specifically involves the deployment of clean power mini-grids to combat energy poverty in underserved African regions. The partnership operates through the Africa Solar Facility, a blended finance platform designed to unlock private commercial capital.
Taken together, these efforts reflect India’s attempt to translate its diplomatic weight and economic scale as the world’s most populous nation into genuine leadership on sustainability for the Global South.
The author is The Manila Times Sustainability Magazine’s executive editor. He is a member of the Finex Foundation’s Environment Committee and its Sustainability Handbook’s Editorial Board.
