Jakarta, PWYP Indonesia – The Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Secretariat in London, England, together with the PWYP coalition in the Asia-Pacific region, held a forum PWYP work sharpening related to Energy Transition and Contract Transparency through online media Zoom, Wednesday (2/12/2020). This activity is a follow-up discussion after discussing the challenges and strategies of PWYP to promote transparency and accountability in the extractive industry sector (1/12), attending the discussion, Ezreena Yahya (ActionAid Australia), Jonathan Moyland (Greenpeace Australia Pacific), Sreedhar Ramamurthi (Deputy Founder of the Environics School of Management Science, as well as representatives from PWYP Australia, PWYP Indonesia, PWYP Philippines, PWYP India, PWYP Papua New Guinea, and PWYP Timor Leste.

The Australian PWYP National Coordinator, Clancy Moore, was the facilitator in the discussion’s first session. “The aim of the PWYP Asia-Pacific coalition discussion today is to share and build knowledge and expertise in the field of the energy transition, and to map the regional coalition’s working area for the 2021-2022 energy transition,” Clancy explained in the opening session. Clancy explained the PWYP positioning paper in encouraging all countries to continue planning the energy transition. PWYP stated that a halt to fossil fuel production must be carried out immediately by countries that have historically contributed the largest global emissions. Currently, the PWYP Global Secretariat is revising the positioning paper, including focusing on the work area of the entire coalition and advancing advocacy for an energy transition.

Clancy mentioned that the PWYP Global Secretariat has three milestones for 2021. These targets include supporting leadership in networks and advocacy and campaign strategies in 2022; building relationships with key organizations working on the climate and energy transition, including donors; lastly, develop an energy transition as the EITI 2022 revisions and initiate the EITI 2022 advocacy strategy more generally.

PWYP Indonesia National Coordinator Aryanto Nugroho said PWYP Indonesia had adopted the PWYP Global 2020-2025 vision strategy by compiling PWYP Indonesia 2020-2024 Work Direction Guidelines (GBHK). Through the Work Direction Guidelines (GBHK), five priority agendas are carried out by PWYP Indonesia, specifically; First, encouraging improved governance in the oil and gas sector along the value chain and making extraction decisions. Second, encourage improved governance in the mineral and coal sector along the value chain and extraction decision making. Third, encourage improved governance in the energy, environmental and sustainable development sectors. Fourth, strengthening capacity and developing organizational independence. Fifth, strengthening the governance of the national secretariat and coalition networks. “Each priority agenda contains indicators and strategies that will be pursued by PWYP Indonesia, of course with the support of the national coalition network, as well as the PWYP Global network, we can continue to strive to improve governance in the extractive industry sector,” said Aryanto.

The forum continued with group discussions to discuss some critical questions related to the energy transition. These questions include advocacy opportunities, campaigns, capacity building, regional even multi-country collaboration opportunities, and the identification of technical gaps and capacities of regional PWYP coalitions in pursuing an energy transition. Several essential points form the outline of the discussion results on the sharpening of PWYP work related to the energy transition. The discussion results included a government position/agenda stating that the energy transition was a top priority but had not yet established a concrete stage towards an energy transition. Also, expanding regional or multi-country collaboration networks from PWYP to key organizations active in sustainable energy transitions to conduct research and campaigns related to energy transition following EITI standards.

The last session of this meeting was facilitated by Emil Omarov (PWYP Manager for Asia-Pacific, Eurasia, and MENA). Emil described several updates to the PWYP Global Secretariat for 2020. “There are three PWYP coalitions joining this year, PWYP South Sudan, PWYP India, and Lebanon. So that we have a total of 51 members of the coalition,” said Emil. Further updates regarding the campaigns and programs that have been carried out by PWYP. First, promoting a fair and transparent generation and allocation of extractive industry revenues for sustainable development projects. Second, consultation on gender issues and planning a global campaign on contract transparency.

Contract transparency and energy transition appear to be the top priorities of PWYP’s work in 2021-2022. Emil concluded the meeting by saying that the PWYP global campaign could be carried out with tactics adjusted by each coalition member country. At the national level is advocacy in the media, advocacy to the government, and laws adjustment. Meanwhile, at the international level, PWYP coalition members can collaborate in holding meetings with stakeholders to achieve EITI standards. (cra)