Study Group Session 1 Summary

The 1st Study Group Session (SG1) of ATF SG 2025 was held on 28 August 2025. The primary objective of the session was to introduce and seek member feedback on the proposed structure and content of the 2025 Annual Report.

During the session, the Secretariat presented the draft outline of the Annual Report, which consolidates insights from the year’s learning sessions into seven main chapters. These chapters cover the current state of transition finance in ASEAN, country-specific situations and unlocking mechanisms for Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, as well as thematic discussions on solutions and systems to drive the energy transition—such as sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), battery energy storage systems (BESS), distributed networks, ASEAN Power Grid development, and carbon pricing and voluntary carbon markets. The draft also includes analysis of transition finance assessments in selected ASEAN countries and the role of Islamic finance in supporting energy transition. The discussion highlighted ongoing challenges faced by financial institutions, including taxonomy misalignment, differing classification systems, limited access to quality data, and varying national contexts. Emphasis was placed on the importance of strengthening framework literacy, stakeholder engagement, and data availability as critical enablers for credible and efficient transition finance assessments.

The session concluded the analytical foundation for the Annual Report and confirming the Study Group’s commitment to translating learning session outcomes into actionable and policy-relevant outputs. Feedback gathered from study group members and participants will be subsequent refinements to the draft report, which was scheduled for further discussion and finalization in Study Group session#2.